Ahead of the Intercontinental Cup 2023 final, India and Lebanon played out a hard-fought 0-0 draw at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar. The Blue Tigers entered this fixture after a Sunil Chhetri-inspired late 1-0 win over Vanuatu. While Lebanon had to settle for a 0-0 draw against Mongolia.
Coming back to the match, The Indian team made a few changes as Sunil Chhetri was dropped as Igor Stimac started Ashique Kuruniyan up top, along with Udanta Singh and Lallianzuala Chhangte. With these changes, India attempted to play some counter-attacking football which didn’t lead to big chances.
Stimac brought on Rahim Ali and Chhetri in the late moments where poor finishing and missed opportunities left the Blue Tigers goals. Whereas Lebanon stuck to a conservative game plan with some bursts of creativity and a few half-chances. But another display of poor play in the final third led to a 0-0 draw.
Reacting to this performance, Igor Stimac praised India’s defence and expressed that the team needs to improve on the finishing front to beat tougher opponents like Lebanon. He said, "[I am] very happy with the boys' performance. We knew we [would be] be tested a couple of times, and that's exactly what happened. When you play against better and [higher] quality opponents, it must happen. They have the quality to do so, but we defended well in such situations".
"I'm very happy, another clean sheet, let's take positives - [we] created enough chances to win with the big margin, and at the end just sorry for the boys that it didn't happen. Even Sunil had a clear chance at the end, so... next time. In three days time."
Whereas Lebanon head coach Aleksandar Ilic talked about how India has been the biggest challenge for the team in this tournament. He said, “India is the best challenge for us in this tournament, and we really need to improve our level for that game. We are still not qualified for the final since things still depend on the Mongolia-Vanuatu match and our game with India. It’s been tough playing every three days in such weather, but we knew of the conditions before arriving here and will give our best.”
