AFC Asian Cup 2019 champions and ranked number 62 in the world, Qatar and 103-ranked India ended tonight's match in a draw. The 2022 FIFA World Cup Qualifier match that kicked off at 7:30 pm (Qatar standard time) at the Al Sadd Stadium drew more than 12,000 spectators with tickets already sold out as early as last afternoon, a report says.

Qatar started the game strong by loading 27 goal shots compared to India's only two attempted goal shots. Despite being the dominant team, Qatar failed to penetrate the inside game of India resulting in failed goal shots. India's very own Gurpreet Singh Sandhu rallied back by doing massive blocks as Qatar continued to attack, but to no avail. According to experts, with this draw, India has gained the first point on board in the qualifiers.

Prior to the game tonight, India, in their first qualifying match last week, yielded to Oman while Qatar, on the other hand, dominated the Qatar vs. Afghanistan match and won 6-0.

Team Qatar

The Qatari team: Saad Sheeb, Meshal Barsham, Mohammed Al-Bakri, Pedro, Salem Al-Hajri, Tareq Salman, Abdulkarim Hassan, Boualem Khoukhi, Hassan Al-Haydos, Akram Afif, Abdulaziz Al-Ansari, Hashim Ali, Bassam Al-Rawl, Assim Madibo, Almoez Ali, Karim Boudiaf, Ali Afif, Musaab Keder, Ahmed Fathy, Yousef Abdelrazzaq, Al Mahdi Ali, Ahmed Alaaeldin, Abdulaziz Hatim, Abdullah Abdul Salam.

Team India

The Indian managed to stay in the game with a team that was made up of: Gurpreet Singh Sandhu, Amrinder Singh, Kamaljit Singh, Vishal Kaith, Rahul Bheke, Nishu Kumar, Pritam Kotal, Anas Edathodika, Sandesh Jhingan, Narender Gahlot, Sarthak Golui, Adil Khan, Subhasish Bose, Mandar Rao Dessai, Nikhil Poojari, Udanta Singh, Anirudh Thapa, Raynier Fernandes, Vinit Rai, Sahal Abdul Samad, Brandon Fernandes, Lallianzuala Chhangte, Halicharan Narzary, Ashique Kuruniyan, Balwant Singh, Sunil Chhetri, Manvir Singh.

Head-to-head matches

In their previous head-to-head matches, Qatar has won three out of four official matches against rival India with one game ending in a draw. In September 2007, Qatar dominated India in their World Cup qualifiers convincingly with a 6-0 lopsided victory. But, India got even a few years by defeating Qatar 2-1 in 2011 in an unofficial game in Doha.

Tonight's game proved that Qatar's is fast growing into a force to be reckoned with in football, thanks to expert coaching by Felix Sanchez Bas, and India's efforts to be better with each game is slowly paying off with both teams canceling each other out tonight.

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Arvin Garcia

Content Writer

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