With India’s 2018 World Cup qualification hopes in shambles after the 3-0 loss to Oman on Tuesday, we decided to check and compile India’s performances in world cup qualifiers over the years starting from 1998. There are some interesting results and our best qualifying campaign was for the 2002 world cup. Sukhwinder Singh coached team that had stalwarts like Baichung Bhutia, I.M Vijayan and Jo Paul Ancheri managed some great results in that campaign. Here are the results from the World Cup qualifiers matches that we played from 1998 to 2014.
34 Asian nations took part in the 1998 World Cup qualifiers. India was in Group 10 along with Qatar, Sri Lanka and Philippines. We managed a win against Philippines, a draw with Sri Lanka and a 6-0 mauling at the hands of Qatar. Nothing to be proud of. Qatar progressed in to the next round as group winners. Iran, Japan, Saudi Arabia and South Korea represented Asia in the 1998 World Cup that took place in France.
Table :
| Rank |
Team |
Pld |
W |
D |
L |
GF |
GA |
GD |
Pts |
| 1 |
Qatar |
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
14 |
0 |
14 |
9 |
| 2 |
Sri Lanka |
3 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
4 |
4 |
0 |
4 |
| 3 |
India |
3 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
3 |
7 |
-4 |
4 |
| 4 |
Philippines |
3 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
0 |
10 |
-10 |
0 |
Matches :
21-Sep-96
|
| India |
2-0 |
Philippines |
| Khalifa International Stadium Doha, Qatar |
| 24-Sep-96 |
| Sri Lanka |
1-1 |
India |
| Khalifa International Stadium Doha, Qatar |
| 27-Sep-96 |
| Qatar |
6-0 |
India |
| Khalifa International Stadium Doha, Qatar |
40 Asian nations took part in the 2002 World Cup qualifiers. India was in Group 08 along with UAE, Yemen and Brunei. This has to be our best qualification campaign in recent past. We managed to defeat UAE at home, held Yemen for a draw and thumped Brunei for a whopping five goals to nil. Coached by Sukhwinder Singh, Indian team finished third in the group. Some positives from the campaign were the home win against Arab giant UAE and the 11 goals we managed score in the campaign. South Korea, Japan (Hosts), Saudi Arabia and China PR represented Asian in the 2002 World Cup.
Table :
| Rank |
Team |
Pld |
W |
D |
L |
GF |
GA |
GD |
Pts |
| 1 |
United Arab Emirates |
6 |
4 |
0 |
2 |
21 |
5 |
16 |
12 |
| 2 |
Yemen |
6 |
3 |
2 |
1 |
14 |
8 |
6 |
11 |
| 3 |
India |
6 |
3 |
2 |
1 |
11 |
5 |
6 |
11 |
| 4 |
Brunei |
6 |
0 |
0 |
6 |
0 |
28 |
-28 |
0 |
Matches :
8-Apr-01
|
| India |
1-0 |
UAE |
| Alberto 71′ |
|
|
| Bangalore Stadium, Bangalore
Attendance: 12,000 |
| 15-Apr-01 |
| India |
1-1 |
Yemen |
| Bhutia 53′ |
|
Al Ghurbani 43′ |
| Bangalore Stadium, Bangalore
Attendance: 21,000 |
| 26-Apr-01 |
| UAE |
1-0 |
India |
| Khater 63′ |
|
|
|
Sheikh Khalifa International Stadium,
Al Ain City
Attendance: 12,000
|
| 4-May-01 |
| Yemen |
3-3 |
India |
| Al-Salimi 13′ (p), 20′, 62′ |
|
Ancheri 16′, 38′
Vijayan 51′ |
| Althawra Sports City Stadium, San‘a’
Attendance: 25,000 |
| 11-May-01 |
| Brunei |
0-1 |
India |
|
|
Ancheri 75′ |
Sultan Hassal Bolkiah Stadium, Bandar Seri Begawan
Attendance: 4,000 |
| 20-May-01 |
| India |
5-0 |
Brunei |
Alberto 12′
Vijayan 23′
Bhutia 35′ (p)
Ancheri 59′
Hakim 80′ |
|
|
Bangalore Stadium, Bangalore
Attendance: 7,000 |
In 2016 AFC introduced a preliminary round in the qualifications. 14 last ranked teams would fight it out in a preliminary round. However, India was not among the 14 last ranked nations and qualified directly to play in Round 2. India was in Group 3 along with Japan, Oman and Singapore. This campaign was nothing short of a disaster for India. This campaign ended Stephen Constantine’s first stint with India. We conceded 16 goals and could only score 2 in the whole campaign. Stephen Constantine was sacked and Sukhwinder took on the reigns in 2005.
Table :
| Rank |
Team |
Pld |
W |
D |
L |
GF |
GA |
GD |
Pts |
| 1 |
Japan |
6 |
6 |
0 |
0 |
16 |
1 |
15 |
18 |
| 2 |
Oman |
6 |
3 |
1 |
2 |
14 |
3 |
11 |
10 |
| 3 |
India |
6 |
1 |
1 |
4 |
2 |
18 |
-16 |
4 |
| 4 |
Singapore |
6 |
1 |
0 |
5 |
3 |
13 |
-10 |
3 |
Matches :
18-Feb-04
|
| India |
1-0 |
Singapore |
| Alberto 71′ |
|
|
| Fatorda Stadium, Margao
Attendance: 28,000 |
| 31-Mar-2004 |
| India |
1-1 |
Oman |
| Renedy 18′ |
|
Amad Ali 12′
Ahmed Mubarak 26′, 49′
Al Hinai 60′, 88′ |
| Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Kochi
Attendance: 48,000 |
| 9-Jun-04 |
| Japan |
7-0 |
India |
Kubo 12′
Fukunishi 25′
Nakamura 29′
Suzuki 54′
Nakazawa 65′, 76′
Ogasawara 68′ |
|
|
|
Saitama Stadium, Saitama
Attendance: 63,000
|
| 8-Sep-04 |
| India |
0-4 |
Japan |
|
|
Suzuki Goal 45′
Ono 60′
Fukunishi 71′
Miyamoto 87′ |
| Yuva Bharati Krirangan, Bidhannagar
Attendance: 90,000 |
| 13-Oct-04 |
| Singapore |
2-0 |
India |
Sahdan Goal 73′
Mohd Goal 76 |
|
|
Jalan Besar Stadium, Singapore
Attendance: 3,609 |
| 17-Nov-04 |
| Oman |
0-0 |
India |
|
|
|
Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex, Muscat
Attendance: 2,000 |
In 2010 AFC introduced seeding for teams in the qualifiers. Seeding for the first two rounds was based each team’s performance during the qualification stage for the previous World Cup. Nations ranked 1-5 after seeding directly qualified for the third round of qualifiers, where as nations ranked 6–43 entered the first round, with teams ranked from 6–24 drawn against teams ranked from 25–43. Bob Houghton coached India was drawn against Lebanon in the first round match that was played in an home and away format. We suffered a 4-1 defeat in the away match at Lebanon but managed to hold them for a draw in Goa. Asutralia, Japan, North Korea and South Korea represented Asia in 2010 World Cup.
Matches :
| 08-oct-2007 |
| Lebanon |
4-1 |
India |
Antar 33′
Ghaddar 62′, 76′
El Ali 63′ |
|
Chetri 30′ |
| Saida International Stadium, Saida
Attendance: 500 |
| 30-Oct-2007 |
| India |
1-1 |
Lebanon |
Chhetri 29′
Dias 90+2′ |
|
Ghaddar 72′ (pen.), 85′ |
| Fatorda Stadium, Goa
Attendance: 10,000 |
2014 World Cup
For the 2014 World Cup, AFC’s competitions committee decided to follow the same format of 2010 World Cup qualifiers. Teams ranked 1–5 directly qualified to the group stages of qualifiers. Those ranked 6-27 received a bye to the 2nd round of qualification and teams ranked 28-43 played the 1st round of qualification. We received a bye to play in the 2nd round of qualifiers and were pitted against UAE. Armando Colaco had taken over the reigns from Bob Houghton by the time we took on UAE in an away match on 23-July-2011, in we got defeated 3-0.
| 23-july-2011 |
| UAE |
3-0 |
India |
Al Kamali 21′ (pen.)
Al Shehhi 29′ (pen.)
Al Hammadi Goal 81′ |
|
|
Sheikh Khalifa International Stadium, Al Ain
Attendance: 3,179 |
| 28-july-2011 |
| India |
2-2 |
UAE |
Jeje 74′
Gouramangi 90+2′ |
|
Al Shehhi 40′
Al-Wehaibi 72′ |
Ambedkar Stadium, New Delhi
Attendance: 13,000 |
Our hopes to qualify for 2018 World Cup are over. Recently we lost 3-0 to Oman and that was our fifth consecutive defeat in this qualifying campaign. For the uninitiated, such bad results are not new for our football team. 2018 World Cup qualifying campaign has also been disrupted because of ISL coinciding with the qualifiers. Let us hope that our team manage to win some upcoming home matches. Mean while, hoping that you enjoyed this compilation of the results from the past.
