India 1-2 Oman - Five talking points

Oman’s attack is good enough to trouble even Iran

Oman’s attacking trio have collectively played 223 times for their country and it showed. They were brilliant in building up the play together. They held up the ball really well and even made a lot of runs in behind the defence.

There was a phase in the second half where they were able to maintain possession in India’s 18-yard area comfortably. When India travel to Oman for the second leg, Constantine will have to come up with a plan to stop Oman’s trinity if he wants a positive result there.

Ganesh should start the next game

When Dhanpal Ganesh was introduced in the second half, India seemed to gain more control of the match. He was doing the running around, throwing himself into tackles and switching the game from one wing to the other.

His introduction freed up Eugeneson Lyngdoh, who started become more influential as the game reached its conclusion. Ganesh has definitely given the manager something to think about for the game against Guam in five days time.

Refereeing was not upto the expected standard

The refereeing the game was not as good as one would have hoped for. India scored an equalizer in the second half but was disallowed for offside. The referee’s assistant took at least 5 seconds to make up his mind whether to raise his flag or not.

It wasn't just India who were denied a goal. Oman had a very good shout for second half penalty as well, but their appeals