The Indian football team made a spectacular comeback in the second half, beating arch-rivals Oman 1–1 in their first international match in more than a year, although the friendly dominated the Gulf side on Thursday. India allowed Chinglensana Singh’s goal keeper to score in the 42nd minute after hitting goalkeeper Amarinder Singh, who started the match instead of Gurpreet Singh Sandhu. Manveer Singh scored an equalizer in the 55th minute, helping India to play a rare draw against Oman in the first international outing after the COVID-19 lockdown.
India’s head coach Igor Stimack made the debut to several 10 players. He said before the match that he would give maximum players a chance to gain experience of playing in big matches.
In the first half, Oman did not take a single shot while targeting India. Oman, who have won both two-leg matches of the 2022 World Cup qualifying against India, played a higher defensive line with more men on the attack.
India was guarding its stronghold with more players in its half and most of the time just one man. The Indians lost possession easily on most occasions as Oman did not let them stick to the ball for long.
“I was worried after the first 45 minutes because we couldn’t find a way to catch the ball. We couldn’t find the players (passes) except Suresh (Wangjam), who was the youngest and tried to take responsibility. Stimac said after the match, “Do the ball and do what we were working on in training.”
“At half-time, I told the team that we didn’t put pressure on the Oman player with the ball in our half and we stayed far away from our players. As a unit we do.
“The second half shows that there is nothing to fear. Of course, these are the better sides and there is a difference of 25-30 spots in the rankings, which is a big difference. But, that doesn’t mean we can . ” We get the result of T and we showed it even today. “
Oman scored a penalty in the 27th minute after Rawlin Borges committed an offense on Abdul Aziz Al Ghilani inside the box. Aziz himself took the spot kick but shot Amarinder Singh directly.
But Oman were not denied a goal in the first half. Al Aghabari put the ball on the left wing and sent a low cross to the goal face. Amarinder could not collect the ball clearly and it hit Chinglensana Singh and went across the goal line.
Stimac made two changes at the start of the second season with Lallengmavia and Rainier Fernandes, replacing Jakeson Singh and Rollin Borges.
The Indians fared much better in the second half, holding the ball a lot from the first 45 minutes and playing a more attacking game.
India equalized five minutes before the hour mark. Bipin Singh sent in a delicious cross from the right flank, headed by Manveer.
Oman is ranked 81st in the FIFA chart as compared to India’s 104th place, then worked hard for the winning goal but Amarinder was impressive behind the bar as he scored two fine goals in the 63rd and 65th minutes.
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