The Indian Football Team has travelled to Malayasia where they kick off their Merdeka Cup 2023 campaign on Friday. The Blue Tigers will look forward to overcome the woes of the King’s Cup and get back to winning ways. Igor Stimac and co travelled to Malayasia on Monday, however, the squad seemed to have missed the likes of Skipper Sunil Chhetri and Sandesh Jhigan.
Sunil Chhetri and Sandesh Jhingan were a part of India’s squad for the Asian Games. Despite being names in the Merdeka Cup squad Chhetri and Jhingan were absent from the photo as the entire team met at the Bengaluru Airport. Kerala Blaster’s Jeakson Singh was also a notable omission from the group.
The Indian football team will face Malaysia in the Merdeka Cup 2023 semifinal on October 13. The game will take held at the Bukit Jalil National Stadium in Kuala Lumpur.
The other semi-final, which will take place earlier on the same day, will pit Palestine against Tajikistan. The initial idea was for Lebanon to face Palestine, but the squad withdrew. The Palestine Football Team’s participation in the Merdeka Cup 2023 looks to be in jeopardy. This follows Hamas raids into Israel early on Saturday.
The Merdeka Cup, commonly known as Pestabola Merdeka and held in Malaysia since 1957, is an international football tournament between friendly nations. It is conducted to honour the country’s Independence Day.
The tournament, however, is returning after a ten-year absence and was last held in 2013. India has appeared in 17 of the 41 Merdeka tournaments, with its most recent appearance happening in 2001.
Malaysia’s 32nd international match versus India will be a record. The Blue Tigers won a friendly match in Kolkata in 2011 with a score of 3-2. The winners of the two semifinal matches will compete in the final on October 17. Earlier that day, the two losing teams faced off in the third-place playoff.
The 26-member probable list for Merdeka Cup 2023 is as follows –
Goalkeepers: Gurpreet Singh Sandhu, Amrinder Singh, Vishal Kaith and Dheeraj Singh.
Defenders: Nikhil Poojary, Roshan Singh, Sandesh Jhingan, Anwar Ali, Mehtab Singh, Lalchungnunga, Akash Mishra and Subhasish Bose.
Midfielders: Jeakson Singh, Suresh Singh, Anirudh Thapa, Rohit Kumar, Sahal Abdul Samad, Brandon Fernandes, Lallianzuala Chhangte, Udanta Singh, Vikram Pratap Singh, Mahesh Singh Naorem, Liston Colaco and Nandhakumar Sekar.
Forwards: Sunil Chhetri and Manvir Singh.
Head Coach: Igor Stimac
Merdeka Cup 2023 schedule:
October 13, Friday
- Semi-final 1: Palestine vs Tajikistan – 2:00 PM IST
- Semi-final 2: Malaysia vs India – 6:30 PM IST
October 17, Tuesday
- Third-place play-off: Loser of SF1 vs Loser of SF2 – 2:00 PM
- Final: Winner of SF1 vs Winner of SF2 – 6:30 PM
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