India beat Thailand 4-1 in the opening match of the Asian Cup 2019. But the road gets tougher for Stephen Constantine’s boys as they have an even bigger task at hand. Their next opponents are hosts UAE who are nearly 20 places above India on the FIFA rankings.
India have three valuable points, a place on top of the group and a goal average of plus three. UAE are the highest ranked team but they put up an ordinary performance in a 1-1 draw against Bahrain in the tournament opener.
Despite dominating the first-half, India failed to find a breakthrough. Instead, UAE took a crucial 1-0 lead in the 41st minute. India’s attacking players put the UAE defenders under tremendous pressure but failed to find a way past the UAE goalkeeper. In the second-half, India failed to produce the performance of the first with UAE midfielders having a bigger say in the match. After keeping India at bay, Ali Ahmed Mabkhout scored in the 88th minute to put the game to bed and send the hosts top of Group A.