India vs Qatar. Hosts vs Champions (of Asia). A FIFA World Cup qualifying campaign that has gotten off to a flyer for both sides will see the two clash in front of what promises to be a fully packed Kalinga stadium in Bhubaneswar. Almoez Ali and co smashed eight past Afghanistan while a superbly worked Manvir Singh saw India edge Kuwait, in Kuwait City, in their respective openers but both sides will be aware this is a different ball game. The team facing the bigger challenge, of course, will be India.Qatar are the reigning Asian Cup champions and strong favourites to qualify for the World Cup proper. Coached by Carlos Queiroz now, they are also a side keen to put aside their disappointing home World Cup campaign from a year ago, and this makes them doubly dangerous. India, though, will be quietly confident of putting up a good fight, and maybe even pulling off an upset. They have been disciplined in defence for a while now under Igor Stimac, they have a midfield that can sit and spring forward as the situation demands, and they have forwards built for the counter-attack. You can read more with our preview here, where Aaditya Narayan talks about Stimac’s biggest conundrum, and who India’s biggest player will be. Oh, and here’s Sunaadh Sagar on why Qatar better know they are about to get into it with a proper ‘team’.
Meanwhile, our live blog (below), will continue to bring you live updates and build-up (especially from our on-ground correspondent, Sunaadh) to what should be an absolute humdinger.
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