Match Details
Kickoff: Saturday January 13, 5pm IST
Venue: Ahmed bin Ali Stadium, Al Rayyan
Telecast in India: Sports18 Network, online live streaming on JioCinema
The Big Picture
Big picture? This is just about the biggest picture look-in Indian football can get. The AFC Asian Cup is the highest level the national team plays at, and it doesn’t get much tougher than an opening match-up against confederation super heavyweights Australia. On paper India are ranked 101 in the world and Australia 25 but the difference in the standings of both teams were truly underlined when the respective head coaches answered a common question ahead of their match: what is your target for the tournament? India coach Igor Stimac said, “Our target is a good performance, to grow through next three games as a team, as a country in football, and to use the experience from this tournament in the future”. His counterpart Graham Arnold said, simply… “win it”
It is this gap that Stimac and his men will have to bridge come Saturday. In that pre-match press conference, Stimac said he was well aware of the difficulty, but that they were there to “embrace the challenge.”
He said that underdog or not, the “fearlessness” that he’d imbibed in the team over the last five years would mean that his team would not back down from a fight. “We’re not going to give up on our idea and our football, we’re not going to sit back, we didn’t come here to defend at the edge of the box,” he said. “We’re going to go out there and try and enjoy to our football.”
While Stimac insisted that he would not have his team play overtly defensive football, he did say that their main task was to stop Australia from playing to their strengths. “Stop distribution to the flanks, and if we can’t do that, stop crosses from coming in.”
Australia’s aerial threat is very real — in Mitchell Duke they have a centre-forward who dominates aerially, and in Harry Souttar a centre-back who’s arguably the tournament’s biggest aerial threat in a set piece situation. “We can expect a storm is coming,” said Stimac.
Meanwhile, Australia midfielder Jackson Irvine, who accompanied Arnold to the presser, agreed with his coach’s assertion that they would not take India lightly. “We have seen the technical quality India have, the way they can play through us, the way they press aggressively.”
The Australians will be looking to have a strong start to the tournament, and are unlikely to take their foot off the throttle. As Arnold said, “we’ve set our standards, we want to meet them.”
Graham Arnold has had Australia stand toe-to-toe with world champions Argentina in the 2022 World Cup round-of-16, and has led them to two Asian Cup quarterfinals (2007 and 2019). He’ll want to go further this time around.
Form Guide
(Most recent first)
Australia: WWWWL
Australia have won four and lost just one of their last five matches. And that loss was a narrow one in a friendly against England in October – this is a serious outfit who are playing well at the moment.
India: LWLLD
The last five matches have mostly been a tough ride for India. The sole W in that period is a big one, though, beating Kuwait 1-0 away in their World Cup qualifying (2nd round) match. Stimac has already complained — and you can see why — about the fact that his team have not played any friendlies in the lead up to the tournament. Their last match was in late November, when defending Asian champions Qatar schooled them 3-0.
The Head-to-Head
Total games played: 9
Australia wins: 5
India wins: 3 (in 1938 and twice in 1956)
Draws: It’s simple math at this point, really. The lone draw came in 1938.
Trivia: one of those Indian wins in 1956 came in the quarterfinals of the Melbourne Olympics. The most recent match (the only one played after 1981) was the 4-0 humbling that Tim Cahill and Harry Kewell and co. handed India in the 2011 AFC Asian Cup. The only player on either side who played that match and is still around for this one? One Mr. Sunil Chhetri.
The concerns
For India
India have a bunch of questions to answer tactically, from how best to fit in Brandon Fernandes as a Sahal Abdul Samad replacement to how they will make for the lost physicality of Jeakson Singh. You can read all about that here.
For Australia
Matt Ryan is Australia’s only injury worry, but Arnold was confident he would be able to start the campaign against India. Australia have the tactical acumen and technical ability to break down India… Arnold’s primary concern will be to ensure his team maintains their intensity.
The key players
For India
There’s but one Sunil Chhetri. Oh, also expect Sandesh Jhingan to have a very busy evening as Australia bombard India’s boxes with crosses.
For Australia
Mitchell Duke, the target of all those crosses and scorer of 12 goals in 33 matches for the NT. Also Harry Souttar, if said crosses are being sent in via a set-piece situation.
The Predicted XIs
India (4-2-3-1): Gurpreet Sandhu (GK); Nikhil Poojary, Sandesh Jhingan, Rahul Bheke, Subhasish Bose; Apuia, Suresh Singh Wangjam; Manvir Singh, Brandon Fernandes, Naorem Mahesh Singh; Sunil Chhetri
Australia (4-2-3-1): Matt Ryan (GK); Ryan Strain, Harry Souttar, Cameron Burgess, Aziz Behich; Keanu Baccus, Jackson Irvine; Martin Boyle, Connor Metcalfe, Craig Goodwin; Mitchell Duke
