Uzbekistan eased past India 3-0 in a rather one-sided match in the group stages of the AFC Asian Cup that saw the central asian giants show India the virtue of a great footballing truth: keeping it simple.

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Take the three goals they scored, for instance.

Goal one: Jalololiddin Masharipov swings in a lovely ball from the left. Igor Sergeev (all 190 cm of him) rises high and nods it onto the far post. Abbosbek Fayzullayev nods it home. Defensively the marking was poor, and the keeping tentative (probably a bit understandable given what happened when Gurpreet Singh Sandhu overcommitted against Australia in the last match), but the key remained in Uzbekistan’s targeted attacking.

Goal two: Fayzullayev rips forward on the counter, bouncing past Rahul Bheke like he’s not there. Motoring into space, he immediately whips a lovely ball into the six-yard box. Akash Mishra slides in, the ball cannons onto the post, and Sergeev is there to touch it in. There was no hesitancy in Fayzullayev’s decision making and that proved all the difference.

Goal three: Right back Farrukh Sayfiev races out wide on the overlap and Oston Urunov plays him in. Sayfiev sticks in a superb ball into the far post, where an underlapping left back Sherzod Nasrulloev ghosts past Manvir Singh and nods it home from a few yards out… Sergeev and Fayzullayev having taken the Indian centre-backs with them.

There were more chances for the Uzbeks, especially in the first half where Fayzullayev and Masharipov did what they wanted to, when they wanted to it, and they eased along in the second to close the game out.

India had a couple of chances in the first – most notably after their high press discomfited keeper Utkir Yusupov and Anirudh Thapa played in a decent ball into the box, where Sunil Chhetri dummied it to no one — but they were way off the pace for the period. Uzbekistan slowing down in the second half saw India grow into the game — Rahul KP hit the crossbar, Rahul Bheke had a good header saved — but the chances came along far too infrequently as Uzbekistan kept them at bay with concerning ease.

India had made three changes to the XI that started against Australia (only one forced by injury: Mahesh Singh for Lallianzuala Chhangte) in a bid to have a more attacking outlook but that barely made a dent on the Uzbeks. They also had had a listless start to this campaign, drawing 0-0 against Syria, but they showed just what they are capable of on Thursday.

India will now face Syria on Tuesday, Jan 23, and they’ll need a win to finish third and remain in contention for a place in the knockouts. Judging by what we saw against Uzbekistan, they’ll have to level up pretty quickly to do that.

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