India lost to Lebanon by 1-4 in World Cup Asian qualifier

Oct 09: Uphill task for Houghton’s boys to make it to the next round

Indian football team got a major setback in their bid to advance into the second round of the qualifying for the 2010 World Cup on Monday night, when spirited Lebanon came from behind to score a convincing 4-1 victory over India in the opening leg of the Asian qualifiers played at the Saida International Stadium, Beirut in Lebanon on Monday.

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India went in to lead through striker Sunil Chhetri in the 30 th minute but this was all the visitors could manage to do in their away tie. Down from one goal Lebanon players got their act together and restored parity five minutes later through Roda Antra. Both the teams were tried 1-1 at the half time.

On resumption Lebanese shifted their gears into attacking mode and scored two quick fire goals in a span of two minutes. Star striker Mohamad Ghadar shot ahead his team in the 61 st minute before Mahmoud El Ali added one more in the next minute to make it 3-1.

Indian team was all at sea in the second half and could not be able to do much to even reduce the margin of victory of the opponents, as impressive Ghadar increased the tally for his team, netting his brace 15 minutes before the end of the play to pile up visitor’s misery.

Indian coach Bob Houghton was quite optimistic about his team's capability and the collective spirit shown by the boys a day before the match, but it seems that Indian team still doesn’t have the standard of even matching the Asian teams irrespective of their recent upswing in the rankings after winning Nehru Cup.

The return leg will take place in Chennai on October 28 and Bob Houghton’s India has an uphill task in their hands if they want to see the second round action.