Asian Games football: India grouped with China, Bangladesh in men’s draw, Thailand in women’s

India’s men’s football team have been grouped with China, Bangladesh, and Myanmar for the 2023 Asian Games, while the women have been grouped with Chinese Taipei and Thailand. Details:

Men’s draw (all groups but D have four teams):

Group A: China, Bangladesh, Myanmar, India

Group B: Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Mongolia

Group C: Uzbekistan, Syria, Hong Kong, Afghanistan

Group D: Japan, Palestine, Qatar

Group E: South Korea, Kuwait, Thailand, Kuwait

Group F: North Korea, Indonesia, Kyrgyz Republic, Chinese Taipei

Top two teams of each group and four best third-placed team will advance to the round of 16.

The significance of Indian football teams playing at the Asian Games: Explained

Women’s draw (Groups A, B, C have three teams; D and E have four):

Group A: China, Uzbekistan, Mongolia

Group B: Chinese Taipei, Thailand, India

Group C: North Korea, Singapore, Cambodia

Group D: Japan, Vietnam, Nepal, Bangladesh

Group E: South Korea, Hong Kong, Philippines, Myanmar

The top team from each group and the three best second placed teams will advance to the quarterfinals.

The men’s group is a pretty competitive one on paper. China, the highest ranked team in the group are 80th in the world (compared to India’s 99) while Myanmar are 160th and Bangladesh 189th.

China have had a good run of results in 2023, including a comprehensive 4-0 win over groupmates Myanmar. They had, though, finished fifth in FIFA World Cup qualifying last time (below Saudi Arabia, Japan, Australia and Oman). India haven’t won a game against China, but the last they played, in 2018, it ended a 0-0 draw.

India have a favourable head-to-head against both their other opponents (their last (of two) loss to Bangladesh came in 1999 and their last (and only) loss to Myanmar in 2013) and given the gulf in rankings, a minimum of second place will be the expectation going into the Games

A lot, of course, will depend on the strength of the U-24 squads, considering this tournament is happening in a non-FIFA international window and clubs are not mandated to release players.

The women’s group, meanwhile, is a tougher test on paper, with both Chinese Taipei (world rank 37) and Thailand (world rank 44) ranked considerably higher than India (world rank 60). Chinese Taipei, though, have been going through a tough run of results (albeit against higher ranked teams. In fact, they’ve played Thailand over the past couple of years, losing 0-2 in January this year and winning 3-0 in February 2022. Thailand too have struggled recently, also against higher ranked opponents. Considering the lack of match time India’s women’s team have had over the past couple of years, this would make for an interesting battle.

Background

There had been doubts whether India would participate in the men’s and women’s football event at the Games. The Sports Ministry has a criterion wherein only sports teams that are ranked inside the top 8 in Asia are to be sent to the Asian Games. India’s men’s side are ranked 18th in Asia (and 99th in the world) and women’s side are 11th in Asia (and 60th in the world).