India suffered a 0-3 defeat at the hands of United Arab Emirates in a World Cup football second round qualifying match on Saturday. Two red cards in a span of four minutes dashed India’s hopes in the Asian qualifiers for the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

Defender Debabrata Roy and goalkeeper Subrata Paul were out for the rest of the match in the 21st and 24th minutes as they got red carded. India were left with just nine men for more than an hour in the match at Sheikh Khlaifa Bin Zayed Stadium. Hamdan Al Kamali (20th) and Mohamed Al Shehhi (29th) converted the spot kicks which resulted from the infringements by Roy and Paul in the 21st and 24th minutes. Abdulrahman Al Hamadi added a third in the 81st minute.

It was two needless fouls by Roy and Paul who picked up his second consecutive red card in a World Cup qualifier. Roy was guilty of pulling down Mohammed Al Shhehi in the 19th minute while Paul was red carded by Qatari referee Banjar Al Doasri for an infringement on Al Hammadi in the 23rd minute.

Paul’s marching orders infuriated the Indian players and the game was held up for almost six minutes and it resumed only after the intervention of the Asian Football Confederation ( AFC)) officials.

India coach Armando Colaco had to make structural changes in the team by replacing a rusty Steven Dias, much to his displeasure, with Salgaocar goalkeeper Karanjit Singh, who did a great job in the remaining sixty minutes. Striker Sunil Chettri also fell back in the mid-field behind striker Jeje Lalpeklua.

UAE, however, couldn’t take much advantage of India’s miseries and never looked like a side that drubbed the visitors 5-0 in an international friendly last November.

Indians were unable to create any goal bound moves and went into the break 0-2.

In the second half India played a compact game as they were not left with much options. Colaco replaced an aggressive Mehtab Hussain, who picked up a yellow card, with crafty Jewel Raja Sheikh but fighting against a 11-man team was an uphill task for India.

The expected happened in the 81st minute after Al Hammadi scored the third from defence splitting a back heel by Abdul Rahman.

After this loss, it will now be a huge task for India to progress to the next round as they need to beat UAE by a margin of four goals or more in the return leg on July 28 to move to the second round. Roy and Paul, India’s number one goalkeeper, will consequently have to sit out of that match at Ambedkar Stadium.

It won’t be an easy task for India as UAE are in top form, registering a 6-2 win over Lebanon 6-2 in a friendly match last Sunday. Coach Armando Colaco acknowledges that and maintains that his side will have to play their best if they wish to get the better of UAE. “UAE surely have the advantage but my boys are up for the challenge,” he said.

(IANS inputs)

 

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