Blue Tigers search for elusive win but Manolo happy with Vietnam draw

The Blue Tigers are still looking for their first win after four games under new Spanish head coach Manolo Marquez, but he still found some positives from a 1-1 draw with a higher ranked Vietnam in an away friendly on Saturday. This was the 11th game that the Indian senior team has gone winless – starting from the World Cup qualifiers earlier this year.

Farukh Choudhary, a winger for Chennaiyin FC in the Indian Super League (ISL), celebrated his comeback to the Indian national team after nearly three years with an equaliser early in the second half after an own goal by goalkeeper Gurpreet Singh Sandhu put them in arrears. Vietnam are now 116 in the FIFA rankings while India have slipped to 126.

“I’m glad that I could make a difference for the team but I feel that we could have scored another,” Farukh said later. “But everyone played well together as a team. Gurpreet and Anwar also had exceptional games in defence which is why we got this score.”

“Personally, I feel great. I’ve not been a part of the national team for a long time but this is where I wanted to be. I worked hard at my clubs and I knew in my heart that I deserved to be here,’’ he told AIFF media.

The last time Farukh turned out for India was during the Igor Stimac regime when he had an assist against Nepal in October 2021 in a 1-0 victory in Malé, Maldives. However, a serious knee injury pushed back the 27-year-old, who had to start from square one on his way back to the national team.

Good game

Commenting on Farukh’s comeback, Márquez was pleased with the forward’s performance. ‘’I think he had a good game. He did what we expected him to do. It wasn't pre-planned to take him off at 70 minutes, but his contribution was important,’’ said Márquez.

In what was a game of two halves, India called the shots for most of the second half and were a bit disappointed that they could not find the winner. However, the head coach remained positive: “In the first half, it was practically all Vietnam. Then we discussed at half time how we have enough quality to play and finally, we started executing our plans in the second.”

“Sure, Vietnam could have scored in the last minutes when we were tired but we could have scored too with our last chance. But overall, I am satisfied with this. It was a friendly game, after all.”