Indian National Football team is ready to face off against a tricky Afghanistan side on 22nd March, 2024 at Damac stadium, Saudi Arabia.
After a forgetful performance at AFC Asian Cup 2024, “The Blue Tigers” would really want to regain their mojo back in the FIFA World Cup qualifiers on Friday, 12.30 AM IST.
With Sunil Chetri leading the side, India sits at 3rd place in group A with 3 points to their name. India has won 1 out of 2 matches till now which came against Kuwait 1-0 in an away match held in November.
Three points from this match can potentially take them extremely close to making history by entering the third round of world cup qualifiers
Head to Head : India and Afghanistan have played against each other 11 times out of which India has won 7 times while AFG won only once and both teams shared the spoils 3 times.
The last encounter between these teams was a close one in which India edged past Afghanistan by 2-1 scoreline.
With star players like Anwar Ali and Jeakson Singh coming back after a long injury break and inclusion of young players Jay Gupta and Vikram Pratap Singh India looks favourite against Afghanistan.
However, CAM Sahal Abdul Samad will be a major miss in this match due to a hamstring injury suffered during training on Tuesday.
On the other side Afghanistan is coached by a very known face to Indians Ashley Westwood, the man knows a lot of Indian players from very close having coached Bengaluru, ATK and Punjab FC earlier.
Balal Arezou is one of Afghanistan’s most experienced campaigners. The striker has scored nine goals in 28 appearances and is Afghanistan’s second highest goal-scorer
India needs to finish at top 2 in group A to qualify for the next round. So it’s a must win game for Blue Tigers to qualify for the 3rd round of FIFA qualifiers.
Kick off time: 12.30 AM IST (Midnight) Thursday
Date : 22nd March 2024
Live Streaming: Fancode
TV : DD Sports Channel
Prediction | Afghanistan 0-3 India
Written by Aditya Rout
