When it comes to the top footballing nations from Pot 1 of Asia, the teams from the rest of the Pots always look like underdogs when matched with them. Today the draw of AFC Asian qualifiers for the FIFA World Cup 2026, round 1 & round 2, happened in which India has found themselves in Group A of round 2 with heavyweights Qatar and a strong Kuwait. They would be joined by the winner b/w Afghanistan and Mongolia of preliminary round 1.
India vs Qatar will be on the 21st of November 2023, which would be a good experience for the team before going to the Asian Cup in January 2024. Due to India's poor ranking hardly any top side agrees to play friendlies against us but here we are would be playing a competitive fixture against a top Asian side on FIFA official match day.
In the previous FIFA WC qualifiers India had played a 2 legged fixture against Qatar and this time for the 2026 qualifiers India would be playing them again. In the last edition, India held Qatar to a nil-nil draw at Doha which sent ripples down the Asian football community, just like Saudi Arabia defeating Argentina in the last World Cup did to Saudi's reputation.
It was a fantastic show from goalkeeper Gurpreet who has been the wall of India for almost a decade and kept India alive throughout the match by making some inhumane saves. India lost the return fixture by 1 goal.
"It was a fantastic show from goalkeeper Gurpreet who has been the wall of India for almost a decade and kept India alive throughout the match by making some inhumane saves. India lost the return fixture by 1 goal."
Judging by the level of football the 2 countries play at present Indian fans can at best expect a draw but a better performance than what we saw in 2021 as in recent times after the addition of some young talented & more technical players within the Indian squad the quality of football has surely improved a lot which was visible in all the 3 tournaments we played this year.
India will also play Kuwait on the 16th of November just before the Qatar game where India would be looking to get a positive start, but Kuwait should not be taken likely as we saw in the recent SAFF championship India couldn't defeat Kuwait in regulation time despite having the home advantage with us. The rest of the fixtures would be in 2024.
Where To Watch India vs Qatar FIFA Qualifiers?
The Live FIFA World Cup Qualifiers will be broadcasted Live on Star Sports Networks - Tune into Star Sports 2, Star Sports 2 HD For Live Broadcast
You can also Live stream it in Disney+ Hotstar
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