Intercontinental Cup: Victory against Lebanon will thrust India into top-100 of FIFA rankings again

Bhubaneswar, June 14

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Buoyant India will take on a higher-ranked Lebanon with an aim to break into top-100 of the FIFA rankings in their last round-robin clash of the Intercontinental Cup here tomorrow.

In pursuit of a second title, the Blue Tigers have sealed a spot in the final with wins over Mongolia and Vanuatu, which will serve as a prelude to Sunday’s summit clash for the Igor Stimac-coached side.

The match is crucial for India as Lebanon are currently placed at 99 and the hosts at 101, and a win for India will see them overtake the Cedars and break into the top-100 again.

Incidentally, India’s Intercontinental Cup triumph in its inaugural edition in 2018 also saw them break into top-100. India had achieved their best-ever FIFA ranking of 94 in February 1996 in the golden era of Bhaichung Bhutia and IM Vijayan.

As for Lebanon, it’s a do-or-die opportunity after failing to beat Mongolia.

A draw will be enough for Aleksandar Ilic’s side to set up a rematch against the hosts in the final. However, if Mongolia beat Vanuatu in their earlier match, a defeat will see the equation coming down to goal difference.

“We’re playing at home, and we come out in every game with the only aim of winning it,” said Stimac. “It doesn’t matter how Lebanon fared in their previous game. They found it tough to play two games at four in the afternoon.”

“For us, it’s going to be a difficult match as some of their players have enormous quality. They do have weaknesses also, of course, which we could see. So, it will be an interesting game, maybe not beautiful, but definitely interesting,” the Croatian added.

India are yet to concede a goal in the tournament but they have struggled to score as well. It took a brilliant strike from Sunil Chhetri in the 80th minute to seal the game against Vanuatu on Friday.

“Many things were not as I wanted them to be, and we will work on them. But many things were beautiful as well, which we could enjoy,” Stimac said. It’s important to break teams down early because as time progresses, it gets tougher and tougher. We saw that in Lebanon’s game against Mongolia as well,” Stimac added.

Assessing Lebanon’s goalless draw against Mongolia, Ilic said: “We controlled the game for not just 90 but 100 minutes and Mongolia couldn’t come near our goal. But our decisions in the final third haven’t been up to the mark.”