Qatar thwart India in the FIFA World Cup Qualifiers at home

Qatar outplayed India 3-0 in the 2026 FIFA World Cup Qualifier between the two sides at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar.

India’s strategy going into the contest against Qatar was hard to decipher from the word go. There’s no doubt that head coach Igor Stimac wanted to take the route of caution and conservation first given how strong a side Qatar is. After all, there’s no shame in wanting to defense-first approach against a side that’s ranked 41 places higher in the FIFA world rankings.

However, even in that scenario, Stimac’s decision to drop Gurpreet Singh Sandhu to the bench made little to no sense. The custodian in goal was India’s best player in the last two meetings with the hosts of the 2022 FIFA World Cup, especially in 2019, when the Blue Tigers were able to hold the Qatari giants to a 0-0 draw away from home. Moreover, the Croatian head coach also made four changes to the outfield players that secured a stunning 1-0 win over Kuwait in the campaign opener.

As a result, India lost the match 0-3 at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar. It’s one thing to get completely outplayed by the opposition when there’s a tremendous gulf in quality. However, the result is even more difficult to digest considering the fact that many of the mistakes in the match were of India’s own doing and could’ve been easily avoided on another night.

For starters, the plethora of changes made by Stimac meant that the Indian players lacked coordination early on, especially in the defensive phase of the game. As a result, they had to pay the price for it with the Qatari players being physically stronger and technically more adept.

Even in the larger context of things, this game was more than just another World Cup qualifying attempt for India. With the AFC Asian Cup scheduled in January, this was by far their toughest assignment to assess where they are in Asian football as similar or even more difficult teams await Stimac’s men.

With Amrinder Singh replacing goal, the Indian defence didn’t exactly inspire confidence and looked shaky from the word go. Even Amrinder seemed to be affected by the enormity of the occasion and he was shoddy with the ball at his feet and gave away possession several times in the first half.

Qatar seized the contest early on. Arriving into this game after a 8-1 demolition of Afghanistan, they almost took the lead in the second minute but Akram Afif fluffed his chance four yards from goal. It didn’t take long for the floodgates to open as a ball sent into the box from a corner kick saw Moustafa Mashal finding the bottom corner. The Qataris continued to display flair and confidence and launched one attack after the another.

They doubled their advantage in the first minute of the second half with Almoez Ali getting on the scoresheet, registering his 80^th goal for the country. Stimac made a few changes at this point with the hopes of putting more men further forward and besides the odd chance that fell to Sahal Abdul Samad in the 65^th minute, there was little else of note.

Qatar put the game to bed in the 85th minute with substitute Yusuf Abdurisag scoring with the simplest of headers at the near post, and just like that, India’s 15-game unbeaten run at home was broken.