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India go down in football opener
India lost the opening Group D match of their Asian Games campaign going down 0-2 to Kuwait, at the Huadu Stadium in Guangzhou.
India lost the opening Group D match of their Asian Games campaign going down 0-2 to Kuwait, at the Huadu Stadium in Guangzhou.
Khaled Alazemi scored both goals. The first came as early as in the sixth minute after his free-kick from outside the box took a deflection and found the target.
Despite the Indian team's repeated attempts to breach the opponents' defence in the first-half, they failed to get the equaliser.
Post breather, India pushed hard and although they did create a few chances, failed to find the target from as many as five shots on target.
India's best chance came in the 58th minute but captain Joaquim Abranches fluffed the opportunity. "Had Abranches converted the chance, we would have drawn level and the match could have been different," said coach Sukhwinder Singh later.
Kuwait sealed their win when Alazemi scored in added time of the second-half after a back-pass had gone wrong.
"Overall, I am very happy with the performance of my boys. We played a fair amount of time in their half. And yes we missed our share of chances," Singh said. "At the post-match press conference, I was told by a Chinese reporter that India was unlucky to have lost 0-2," he said.
Up next are defending champions Qatar on Tuesday and Singh said their aim is to "minimise mistakes we made today. That is our target."
The coach said there are no injury worries.
