Iraq beat India 5-4 on penalties after an entertaining 2-2 draw in regulation time in the semifinals of the King’s Cup (straight semis) in the 700th Anniversary of Chiang Mai stadium, Thailand. The penalties were superb from both ends, with even the one that missed, from Brandon Fernandes, careening away off the inside of the post.
In regulation time, India opened the scoring with a fantastic counter that came well against the run of play. Iraq had been dominating possession till then, but hadn’t don’t much as India’s press kept them at bay. Then came the counter in the 17th minute… Sahal Abdul Samad picked up the ball down the left flank and ran in before slipping in Mahesh Singh (who’d started as the right winger) down the inside left channel. A touch and a neat finish at the near post and Mahesh had opened the scoring for the day. In the absence of Sunil Chhetri, who stayed back home for the birth of his child, Manvir Singh led the line and his build up play was crucial in setting up the goal.
Iraq, though, responded in ten minutes after Sandesh Jhingan was adjudged to have handled the ball inside the box after left winger Bashar Bonyan had a shot from distance. Forward Ali Karim, who’d not seen much of the action till then, made no mistake with his penalty.
The first half ended in an attritional battle in midfield.
In an attempt to get more oomph into his attack, Javi Grcia made three changes at half time including Amin Alhamawi and big centre-forward Aymen Ghabhban and former Manchester United youngster Zidane Iqbal. This changed the way Iraq played, with balls lofted into the box, and India initially struggled to handle the physicality. Once again, against the run of the play, India hit them on the counter.
In minute 51′, Samad swept a long ball into space down the right flank where Manvir found an overlapping Akash Mishra. The left back, roaming into space down the right wing, crossed weakly into the middle… where Iraq goalkeeper (and captain) Jalal Hasan inexplicably spilled into his own net. That stunned Iraq, and their forward moves for a fair few minutes after this lacked the intent that they had started the half with.
Once they got their crossing radar back on, though, India were up against it. Jhingan wrestled Ghadbhan to the ground inside the six-yard box and a penalty was given; which Ghadbhan himself converted brilliantly.
There was late drama as Iqbal was sent off for a deliberate elbow on Brandon Fernandes, borne out of the frustration of not seeing much of the ball himself, but there was nothing much on at either end in terms of goalmouth action.
The match then went straight to penalties. Brandon missed his first, before everyone else (Salih, Jhingan, Gurpreet, Suresh, Ghadhban, Anwar, Alhamawi, Rahim, Bonyan) scored well.
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