India goes down to UAE

AL AIN (ABU DHABI), APRIL 27. India's hopes of making an entry into the second phase qualifiers for next year's World Cup suffered a setback when it went down 0-1 to UAE in an Asian Zone group-8 match here on Thursday.

The all-important goal was scored by Zubaith Khatir in the 63rd minute of the game, two minutes after the Indian captain Baichung Bhutia was shown the red card and sent out by the referee.

In a keenly contested match in front of a capacity crowd, India and UAE played their hearts out in what was a crucial encounter for both sides.

The teams raided rival areas frequently but were unable to find the goal. The first half remained goal-less.

The second half saw heightened action from both teams as their desperation rose.

The Indians suffered a major setback in the 61st minute of the game when Bhutia was shown the red card for kicking a UAE defender.

With its most inspirational player out, Indian defences went down for sometime and it was capitalised by UAE forwards.

Within two minutes of Bhutia being shown the red card, UAE was able to find the winner through Khatir.

Though the Indians regrouped themselves and went on the attack after that, UAE defenders steeled themselves and did not give any chance to the Indians to equalise. UAE thus took a sweet revenge for its 1-0 loss to the Indians in Bangalore.

UAE now has six points and tops the group followed by India and Yemen on four points each. India, though has played one match more than Yemen.

India plays Yemen in its next match on May 4 and Brunei on May 12.

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Section  : Sport
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