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What's the story?
Sunil Chhetri, a modern day Indian football legend scored his 70th international goal for the Blue Tigers in the opening fixture of the Intercontinental Cup and with that, he became the second highest active goalscorer with his national team, though his two goals were not enough to give India a winning start to their tournament.
In case you didn't know...
Chhetri is the most capped player for the Indian Team, having played 109 games for them.
He was also one of the most important players for the Blue Tigers when they qualified for AFC Asian Cup for the first time in 27 years in 2011.
Iran's Ali Daei is the player with most international goals, as recognized by FIFA and by far the only player to reach a century of goals with his country having scored 109 goals in his career.
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The heart of the matter...
The Intercontinental Cup kicked off earlier today with an opening fixture between India and Tajikistan at the TransStadia Arena in the Indian city of Ahmadabad.
Though the hosts lost the match 2-4 thanks to Tajikistan's second-half domination, the ever-reliable Sunil Chhetri did manage to find the back of the net.
The former Indian captain scored twice in the first half to put India in a commanding position, the first one a sublime Panenka penalty and the second one a Ronaldino-esque toe-poke.
With his first goal, he surpassed Lionel Messi's tally of 68 goals for Argentina to become the second highest active goalscorer and with his second of the game, he became only the 17th player in the history of the sport to score 70 or more goals.
Now, he is only behind Portuguese legend Cristiano Ronaldo in terms of goals for the national team, with his 70 goals in 109 games not too far behind the superstar's 88 goals in 158 games.
What's next?
India have two more group stage fixtures left in the ongoing Intercontinental Cup, against Syria and North Korea, which they will have to win if they want to retain their title.
