Intercontinental Cup 2023: India, Lebanon Play Out Goalless Draw At Kalinga Stadium

Owing to their top two finish, hosts India and Lebanon will play the final on June 18 at the Kalinga Stadium.

Bhubaneswar: India missed the chances that came their way to settle for a goalless draw with Lebanon in the Intercontinental Cup football tournament on Thursday. Continuing with his policy to make wholesome changes to his starting XI, head coach Igor Stimac benched a number of seniors including striker Sunil Chhetri and goalkeeper Gurpreet Singh Sandhu.

Defensive linchpin Sandesh Jhingan wore the captain’s armband in Chhetri’s absence. The result however did not matter as both teams had already sealed their places in the final of the four-nation tournament.

Mongolia and Vanuatu were the two other teams taking part in the event. Introduced in the 82nd minute, Chhetri received a perfect delivery from Anirudh Thapa but the India captain could not find the back of the net.

It would have been 1-0 India within the first five minutes of the game but, after being set up by Lallianzuala Chhangte and with just the opposition goalkeeper to beat, Anirudh Thapa missed a sitter on the fourth minute. All he could do was shoot the ball away.

Then, almost 20 minutes into the match, another chance was wasted as Ashique Kuruniyan hit the ball straight to the Lebanese goalkeeper after a good ball inside the box. The two missed chances from India meant the teams went into the half-time break goalless.

It pretty much continued in the same way in the second half, which also saw the floodlights going off for a couple of minutes, as both teams failed to failed to find the target. Hoping to break the deadlock, both India and Lebanon rang in a few changes, but to no avail as the score remained unchanged till the final whistle.

India had kicked off their campaign with a 2-0 win over Mongolia last Friday before beating Vanuatu 1-0 three days later on Monday. Lebanon too had started with a victory, beating Vanuatu 3-1 before playing out a goalless draw against Mongolia on Monday.