Uneasy, unconvinced and mismatch would be the three words to sum of Manolo Marquez’s first game as the head coach of the India Football Team. Since Igor Stimac’s departure, there is a new head coach at the helm, but the game-style remained more or less the very same. Some questionable choices in the starting XI to players losing their composure saw the Blue Tigers failing to grab at at least an opening goal against much much lower FIFA Ranked Mauritius in the Intercontinental Cup 2024.
India’s opening chance came as early as in the sixth minute of the game. An early move saw India winning a corner. Anirudh Thapa on set piece duty dispatched a delicious ball into the center of the box, only hoping for someone to tap into the top corner. But center-back Chinglensana squander off a golden opportunity as a good chance for the hosts went begging.
New coach, same old India
The rest of the time, the game saw India dominate possession with Mauritius stitching up some rare counterattacks. While India remained highly reliant on their wide players, both wingers and side backs, but the moves came up to nothing. The new India setup with an abundance of center midfielders saw plethora of side passes and back-passes. But hardly any forward through balls were made.
The best chance of the half came for Mauritius. Emmanuel Rudy fancied a long distance shot which caught goalie Amrinder by surprise. The ball failed to dip a bit and breezed past after kissing the crossbar. India did get a couple of late corners but those yielded nothing as the bleak first half came to an end.
Creativity was needed and Manolo Marquez understood it pretty early. Within a few minutes past half-time, he went on to send Sahal Abdul Samad and Nandha Kumar out to warmup. And not surprisingly when the second half resumed, the two changes weren’t surprising. Sahal replaced Liston while Nandha replaced Thapa. But in reality, Sahal occupied his preferred number 10 role while Nandha went on to gallop down the left flank.
Can India score?
And almost instantaneously the changes started to click. Lallianzuala Chhangte went on to create multiple opportunities within minutes of the start of the second half. Nandha too wasn’t silent. He too tried his best to cut and float some crosses inside the box, but the Mauritius defenders were alert on multiple occasions to avert any danger.
But Mauritius suddenly took over the charge of the game as they went on to pile barrages of attacks. Marquez then brought on Suresh to replace Apuia at the 66th minute. The dull passage of play continued as Marquez brought off Jay Gupta. Subhasish Bose took his place. With 10 minutes remaining, a last role of the dice was made when Asish Rai was replaced by Nikhil Poorary.
The second half saw much better chances for India. Sahal, Chhangte drifing inswards, Manvir taking the outward route saw some promising moves. But lack of finishing and missed chances from Nandha saw India remain toothless as has been the case for quite sometime.
Up next India will take on Syria on 9th September.
