The Indian football team suffered a 3-0 loss to Syria as its hope of lifting the Intercontinental Cup title for the third time ended on Monday, September 9. Mahmoud Al Aswad, Daleho Mohsen Irandust and Pablo Sabbag scored the goals for Syria as India drew a blank in the final league stage match of the three-team tournament.
India were earlier held for a goalless draw against Mauritius on September 3 as they collected only one point from that game. The Intercontinental Cup is a round-robin tournament where the team finishing on top after the league stage matches wins the title and there is no final.
While India could not beat Mauritius, Syria had downed them 2-0 in their opening match to have three points coming into the match against India. After their win over the Blue Tigers, they finished the league stage on top with six points, while the other two teams have one point each.
Coming back to the match, Al Aswad opened the scoresheets with a strike in the seventh minute. After an attack down the right flank, Al Aswad's strike went into the goal, following a deflection from an Indian defender. The Indian team was under the pump but somehow managed to go 0-1 into the half-time.
In the second half, the Blue Tigers were the better of the two teams and had their chances. Nikhil Poojary and Suresh Singh were bought in for Asish Rai and Apuia for the second half. Sahal Abdul Samad had a good run in the Syrian defence in the 55th minute and sent a good ball to Lallianzuala Chhangte, who could not send the ball past the goalkeeper.
Syria doubled their lead in the 77th minute when Daleho Mohsen outfoxed Anwar Ali from the right side of the goal and sent the ball past the Indian goalkeeper Gurpreet Singh. Substitute Edmund Lalrindika looked to get India on board with a goal in the later part of the game, but his shot was saved by the Syrian keeper. A little later, Pablo David Sabbag scored the third goal, which was to get Syria 3-0 up and end the match.
This was the first time that Syria have won the title in the first four seasons of the tournament. India had won the first title in 2018 before North Korea won it in 2019. The Indian team was the defending champion, having won the title in 2023.
