English
India took the lead through defender Sandesh Jhingan but threw away their lead as the patient, persistent Turkmenistan side found a way into the match and knocked two second half goals. This signals the end of the road for Stephen Constantine’s Blue Tigers, who put a valiant fight but could not help going down to their second defeat in the space of a week. They had earlier been thrashed by Carlos Quieroz’s Iran 0-4 away from home.
The home side received a big blow as skipper Sunil Chettri was declared unfit to start and it was India’s young strike force that needed to step up to the plate. The Turkmenistan side were happy to sit back and play and the counter and the Indians deservedly went into the lead through Jhingan strike in the 26th minute. The match was feisty and physical and there were a couple of off-the-ball incidents that could have led to red cards. The referee was focussed on the flow of the game, and it did pay rich dividends as there were plenty of chances for both the sides.
It seemed like the goal shook up the Turkmenistan side and almost immediately after the second half kicked off, winger Arslanmyrat Amanow equalised for the away side while substitute Serdaraly Atayew landed the knock-out punch. Indians tried hard to get back in the game but missed finesse upfront without Chettri. Young substitute Seityasen Singh came close on a couple of occasions but shot wide of goal. Jeje had chances on either side of the half. Turkmenistan nearly doubled their lead but Gurpreet Sandhu made a stunning save from point-blank range.
The Indians created a concerted amount of pressure in the closing stages with Narayan Das swinging in a rain of crosses but it was not India’s day. Chettri cut a despondent look from the bench as India had to yet again reflect on ‘What might have been’.
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