India left reeling by Afghanistan as World Cup hopes begin to fade again

Perhaps the one positive for India from their shock 2-1 home defeat by Afghanistan in 2026 World Cup qualification is that the team have risen far enough for shock defeats to be a thing. It is not much of a comfort, however, and once solid-looking dreams of reaching the final stages on the road to the World Cup for the first time are starting to hang by delicate threads of Assam silk.

On Thursday, fans in that state’s biggest city, Guwahati, were confident of a comfortable win against Afghanistan, a team ranked 158 in the world. The 0-0 draw between the two five days earlier in the south-west corner of Saudi Arabia, rather than in Kabul, was surely a blip. Qatar were streaking ahead in Group A of qualification, leaving India and Kuwait to fight for the second spot that also brings a place in the final 18 that will fight it out for Asia’s increased World Cup allocation of eight. India had four points from the first three games and could have moved four points clear of third with two games to go.

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That seemed to be on the cards when the third-highest active men’s international goalscorer, Sunil Chhetri, netted No 94 (12 behind Lionel Messi and 34 behind Cristiano Ronaldo) in the first half. With 20 minutes left, however, Rahmat Akbari equalised and just before the end Sharif Mukhammad scored an already famous winner. It was a stunning result.

India are still second but instead of being almost home and dry they are level on points with Afghanistan and one ahead of Kuwait and still have Qatar still to play. Anything could happen in the remaining games in June.

Fans gathered outside the stadium to boo as the team headed to the bus and chants of “Stimac out” could be heard. Igor Stimac’s job is on the line. The former Derby and West Ham centre-back was already on the defensive after last year’s rumours – angrily denied – that he consulted astrologers when selecting the team and, more importantly, a poor Asian Cup. India arrived at the tournament in January with high hopes but left Qatar without scoring a goal. The Blue Tigers broke into the top 100 of Fifa’s rankings last summer but they have since slipped to 117.

The team are reliant on the soon-to-be-40 Chhetri in attack and fans feel their Croatian coach does not take enough responsibility for setbacks. After the loss, Stimac said he did just that, but then talked of a lack of intensity from his players, too many mistakes and a need to improve fitness levels. It is a measure of the progress made that missing out on the last 18 of qualification would be regarded as a major failure but Stimac needs to prove wrong an increasing number of fans who feel he has taken the team as far as he can in the past five years.

Afghanistan’s coach, Ashley Westwood, has inserted himself into any conversation if Stimac leaves. The former Sheffield Wednesday defender won two Indian league titles in 2014 and 2016 with Bengaluru, a new team. After leaving for Malaysia to take over underperforming Penang, he probably tried to change too much too quickly and it did not work out. Now, though, he has reminded people what he can do after five months with Afghanistan.

It is a challenging job. The Aghanistan national team are not able to play games at home. Much of the squad is made up of players who left the country at a young age to settle in Europe. “We’ve worked really hard over the last 14 days, we’ve had some incredible travel,” said a delighted Westwood, who claimed the Lions of Khorasan should also have won the first meeting between the two. “Players, staff from 16, 17 different countries coming together, it has been difficult. We’ve had 350 flights to organise; it’s a logistical nightmare.”

Stimac would welcome that problem. He and the federation have asked the India government to allow players of Indian origin who were born and raised in Europe and elsewhere to Indian parents to be granted dual nationality so they can be called up. It has yet to happen.

China’s new coach, Branko Ivankovic, another Croatian, called up the naturalised Brazilians Elkeson and Fernandinho for his first two games, both against Singapore. The first was a disaster as Team Dragon, who also failed to score at the Asian Cup, let slip a two-goal lead to draw 2-2. For an hour of the return in Tianjin, it was looking dicey at 1-1 before three late goals provided a vital China win. It prevented more negative headlines on the day Chen Xuyuan, former head of the China Football Association, had been jailed for life on corruption charges. He joins in prison a number of other high-ranking officials as well as the former national team coach, and Everton player, Li Tie.

China got out of jail late against Singapore but failure to beat Thailand on 6 June may result in the team needing to get something against their international kryptonite, South Korea, in Seoul. India also can’t afford any more slip-ups.