Indian Football: Intercontinental Cup - Know your opponents

Indian Football Team in action at the AFC Asian Cup
Indian Football Team in action at the AFC Asian Cup

#2 Tajikistan

Tajikistan Football Team
Tajikistan Football Team

To be fair, Tajikistan Football Team has not been playing the right chords for a while now. They have had no records, either in the FIFA World Cup or in the AFC Asian Cup.

Ranked at 120th in the most recent FIFA rankings, the Tajiks have only won twice in their last ten meetings. Manuchekhr Dzhalilov, Tajikistan all time top-scorer, has scored 14 times in 24 games, ever since his debut in 2011.

On the other hand, neither can India boast of having any success against them as the Blue Tigers have themselves won only once in the last four clashes while drawing in the other two. Tajikistan won the inaugural AFC Challenge Cup, also their first International tournament, back in 2006, but failed to win it again in the following season after losing at the hands of India in the 2008 final.

In the 2008 final of the AFC Challenge Cup, which was held at the Ambedkar Stadium in New Delhi, Sunil Chhetri's hat-trick inspired the Blue Tigers' 4-1 win, which incidentally, also enabled them to qualify for the 2011 AFC Asian Cup.

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