India suffered an embarrassing 0-6 rout at the hands of formidable United Arab Emirates -- their heaviest defeat against the Gulf side -- in the second international football friendly in Dubai on Monday.
Sunil Chhetri, playing in his 121st international in the SAFF Championship, struck in the 27th minute to place himself just a goal shy of legendary Brazillian Pele (77 goals from 92 matches).
Sunil Chhetri's late goal earned India the 1-0 victory over Nepal in the SAFF Championship, at the National Football Stadium in Male, Maldives, on Sunday. The victory took India to third in the group standings with five points, just a behind Maldives and Nepal, both of whom have six points each.
Sunil Chhetri became the 8th top scorer in international football after equalling Brazil legend Pele's goal tally.
India captain Sunil Chhetri added another feather to his illustrious cap as he overtook Argentina star Lionel Messi to become the second-highest goalscorer among the current players in international football.
Earlier in the day, Bolivia beat Venezuela 3-1 at home and Uruguay and Paraguay drew 0-0 in Montevideo.
Boualem Khoukhi's early strike and an eighth goal of the tournament from striker Almoez Ali gave Qatar a 2-0 halftime lead with Hassan Al-Haydos and Hamid Ismail completing the rout in the last 10 minutes.
An important factor in India's stupendous success in 2021 was the way the government opened its coffers to support athletes.
Australia made the worst possible start to the defence of their Asian Cup crown on Sunday as Graham Arnold's Socceroos were handed a 1-0 defeat by unfancied Jordan.
Mbappe and Benzema inspire France to 2-0 win against Finland
Images and a round-up of all the World Cup qualifiers played across continents on Tuesday.
Ali Ahmed Mabkhout needed just 14 seconds to put the United Arab Emirates ahead as they went on to beat Bahrain 2-1 on Thursday and secure a rare Asian Cup quarter-finals appearance.
Four days after creating a flutter with a stunning 4-1 drubbing of Thailand, India are now looking an upbeat lot in the continental showpiece.
China's hopes of qualifying for next year's World Cup finals hang by the thinnest of threads after an injury time goal from Ahmed Al Saleh saw Syria hold Marcello Lippi's team to a 2-2 draw on Tuesday evening.
A gritty India survived waves of attacks from Qatar to hold the reigning Asian champions to a goalless draw to steal an unexpected point from their away match of the FIFA World Cup Qualifiers.
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