Qatar vs India: A Draw Well Deserved Or Hard Earned?

Blue Tigers roared loud against Asian Champions, Qatar, as we held them to a historic 0-0 draw in the 2nd match of the joint World Cup 2022 and Asian Cup 2023 Qualifier held in Doha on 11th September. It was a game full of 'what-ifs' and 'maybes' as both teams had their share of moments over the 90 minutes. Let's dive into the analysis and see how we fared.




Disciplined Defending

India adapted and improvised their defensive structure efficiently against Qatar's ever-evolving offensive approach. They did well to constantly change between 4-1-4-1, 4-5-1 and 5-4-1 as and when Qatar tried to find spaces to open up our defense. India was disciplined and organised to keep Qatari players at bay and avoid giving up unnecessary spaces infront of goal.

Defending with superiority in wide areas caused Qatar to shift constantly to both sides to no avail. Overloading wide areas to create 1v2 or 1v3 situations didn't allow Qatar to creep in behind our defenders. This discipline and rigidness to maintain an overload and superiority will help India again when we play Qatar on March 20, 2020.

Quick reaction to get back into a compact defensive shape helped India deal with Qatar's counter-attacks. This forced Qatar to push more players forward to attack and in-turn it gave India the advantage in our counter-attack situations.



Aggressive Attacking

Offensive transitions could have been quicker and direct to goal, versus an opponent who we knew wouldn't give many clear chances. Positional awareness to foresee players' movements and anticipation of opponents reactions will help us in our home game against Qatar.

Indian players were very courageous and showed strong character to consistently try and play passes inbetween lines. It proved effective at times when we could attract Qatari midfielders out of their positions and create space behind them.
Qatar lacked in defensive discipline and that helped India play more inter-line passes. If the decision to play final passes after better anticipation improves in the 2nd leg, we are sure to score and possibly give them the L!



Creative Counter-Attacking

Going back one step, principles of the game suggest, defending in superiority and then winning the ball gives more chances of a controlled counter-attack. And that's exactly what India did! Unlike against Oman, the counter-attacks in this game were controlled and creative. Qatar would have expected India to behave the same way we did against Oman, surprisingly to them, we played crisp passes to get out of pressure zones and attack further up the pitch.

Udanta was a sight to behold when given free space to make speedy runs. This helped India on quite a few occasions to cover up long lengths of the pitch and get closer to Qatar's goal. If he improves and quickens his decision making process along with the players in the game-centre, he could be the talisman we so dearly need!


As per my analysis and the way we have progressed from the Oman game, I'm sure in our next game against Bangladesh we'll get maximum points. Also, if we avoid making unforced errors and focus more on better decision making while in possession, as I mentioned in the analysis, we could be looking at a good boost to our goal difference.


I hope you enjoyed my analysis and I'm eagerly looking forward to your invaluable feedback, suggestions and ideas. Do like, share and follow the page to show your love!


Football - Analysed!



(Video and Statistics Credits - WyScout.com)

India vs Oman: A Tale Of Two Halves!

India lost their first joint World-Cup 2022 and Asian Cup 2023 Qualification game against Oman on Thursday, in Guwahati, by the smallest of margins, 1-2. Let's get into the analysis and see what went wrong, what to improve and the positives to build on to.


Offensive Analysis

While maintaining possession, India tends to combine well to build up. They attract the opponent out of their defensive organisation and spread them out. This gives more space for the midfielders and attackers to combine and take advantage of.
When the opponent is disorganised, winning the 2nd ball after playing long balls helps India gain control of the middle-third of the pitch. Inter-line passing to break Oman's defensive lines gives India a good advantage to create an overload in their area and more chances to get into scoring positions.
If the positioning and involvement out of the game-centre improves, we could be an attacking threat to reckon with.

On the other hand, over-reliance on Ashique's movement towards the left side and Chhetri's finishing abilities, which are no doubt the best in the country currently, doesn't give us many other options to explore while in an offensive transition to counter-attack.
Over-working and in-turn tiring them both out, can also be a reason why we couldn't create a single serious chance to score after the 65th minute.

The unwillingness to push up together as an offensive unit to attack, rather than it only being the attacker's responsibility clearly shows lack of cohesion and needs to improve on an immediate basis.
The tired and complacent body-language and behaviour, as early as in the 60th minute, doesn't give a good account of the team and justifies how much the players need a longer and more competitive league structure.

In situations of isolation, players need to have better awareness and decision making. Doing this would give them an advantage in the space-time synthesis. The more time and space we have, the more advantage we will have over the opponent as their decisions will be based on our actions and not on their own movements.

The little combinations upfront between our attackers, incorporated by Coach Igor, have shown sparks of promise when executed well. In this particular case, Chhetri drops down to attract Oman's central defender. This opens up a hole in their defensive line and creates an imbalance. Udanta makes the most use of this and unleashes his speed to win the ball on the flick.
After that, India need to be proactive to create a numerical superiority situation in their defensive-third which might have given us a good chance to score.



Defensive Analysis

When India applies good pressure-cover tactics while being out of possession, we tend to control the opponent and not let them break into our defensive-third. It forces Oman to turn back and re-organise their offensive movements. Quick pressure from out-of-sight of opponents unsettles them. And finally when they force their passes in behind our defensive line, India's defensive structure stays rigid and gives us the desired outcome.

As we talked about India needing to improve on their good offensive unity, the same can be said for their defensive unity. Only three attackers pressuring on the ball in our offensive-third while the rest of the players waiting near the half-way line, leaves a huge gap for Oman to take advantage of. Even then, when Oman reaches our second wave of defenders, the attacking trio up-front show no initiative to help out.

Ultra-defensive mindset gives the opponent levy to use time and space as per their discretion, without any real pressure from Indian players. It could have been an instruction from the coaching staff, nevertheless, didn't turn out to be a good one. Had we put pressure on the opponents after clearing the ball in the middle-third, we could have pushed them further behind and averted them from piling pressure on us and scoring.

Individual and 'glocal' (local but as a group) defensive duties were not clear. If the message isn't clear to the players, the opponent directly benefits from unforced errors. Here, lack of understanding and communication leaves players in India's left corridor looking clueless and gives Oman the advantage to push inside our defensive zone to try to create scoring opportunities.

Maintaining a good defensive line and shape is always a concern even for the biggest of teams, but when maintained well, it gives amazing results. The same happened for India. When holding a good defensive line and structure, we won the ball and took control of the tempo. Getting out of tight spaces became easier and finding passes to disorganise Oman into conceding a freekick gave us a good numerical and spatial advantage in the middle-third.


Looking at the analysis, there are a few areas to improve on but there are also moments which we should be applauding. We can be sure about beating Oman the second-time round when we visit them in November, if we work on these areas and are confident in our abilities.
If India wants to get through the qualifiers, we need to focus on some of these specific aspects and have the conviction and determination to get points off of Qatar next week.



I hope you enjoyed my analysis and I'm eagerly looking forward to your invaluable feedback, suggestions and ideas. Do like, share and follow the page to show your love!

Football - Analysed!


(Video and Statistics Credits - WyScout.com)