India Go Down Fighting, Suffer 0-3 Defeat To Fancied Qatar

India dished out a gritty display but suffered a 0-3 drubbing against dominant Asian champions Qatar in their second match of the 2026 FIFA World Cup second round qualifiers on Tuesday. Qatar would have won by a bigger margin had they not missed several chances while dominating throughout the 90 minutes at the Kalinga Stadium. The visiting side scored through Moustafa Tarek Mashal (4th minute), Almeoz Ali (47th) and Yusuf Adurisag (86th). India, who were seeking inspiration from their famous 0-0 draw against the same opponents four years ago, could barely create scoring chances. They did get a couple of opportunities at the fag end of the first half, but wasted them. Igor Stimac's team is still in contention to finish second in Group A and qualify for the third round for the first time after a 1-0 win over Kuwait in their away match on November 16.

The Indian defence was exposed quite early into the match as they conceded a goal in the fourth minute itself.

Off a corner, three Qatar players exchanged passes inside the Indian box but none of the home side defenders could touch the ball. Moustafa Tarek Mashal then sent a low right-footed shot which beat goalkeeper Amrinder Singh, who was fielded by Igor Stimac in place of Gurpreet Singh Sandhu, all ends up.

Akram Afif missed three chances which allowed India to go into the breather just one goal down.

Afif failed to hit the target in the second minute with just the Indian goalkeeper in front of the post. He also failed to find the target in the 14th, 22nd and 26th minutes.

First goal scorer Mashal's free header was saved by Amrinder.

Their backs to the wall, India tried to hit on the counter and they got two fine chances, and could have restored parity from the second one.