India played well in their first match of the World Cup 2026 qualifiers. They beat Kuwait 1-0 in their home ground. This was the first time India won a World Cup qualifier match outside India in 22 years. The coach of India is Igor Stimac. He is from Croatia. He has been working hard to improve the team for many years.
Qatar is a strong team. They won their first match 8-1 against Afghanistan. Their best player scored four goals in that match. India will play against Qatar next. Stimac made some good decisions in the match against Kuwait. He changed some players and their positions. This helped India score the goal and win the match.
Apuia Ralte is a midfielder. He did not play for India for a long time. But Stimac picked him for the match against Kuwait. He played well with Suresh Wangjam. Rahul Bheke is a defender. He also played well with Sandesh Jhingan. They stopped Kuwait from scoring any goals.
It is going to be quite challenging for India to compete with an experienced and skilled team like Qatar, who recently played in the World Cup, but they are also not having a good year as they only won three matches and lost almost 6, which will give India a confidence to compete well and last time when India played against Qatar they drew with them and at that time the Qatar team was way better then it is now.
India needs at least a draw to keep themselves in the qualification run because, after the Qatar match, they will have the break and play two matches against Afghanistan, the weakest team in the group. They need to at least draw this game against Qatar, and the Indian team has been playing fantastic football, especially in 2023.
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