Courtesy: X
The Indian men’s football team will be playing a friendly against Malaysia at home in just over two month’s time during the FIFA international window on November 19, 2024, according to the announcement from the All India Football Federation (AIFF). The Blue Tigers, coached by Manolo Marquez, who had taken up the job from Igor Stimac, will be looking to get back to winning ways in the build-up to this friendly after a string of poor results in all competitions in 2024.
Notably, during the Intercontinental Cup earlier this month, India drew their first match against Mauritius with a 0-0 scoreline before losing 0-3 versus Syria after a disappointing end to their FIFA World Cup 2026 Qualifiers second round and AFC Asian Cup 2024 campaigns earlier this year. Before taking on Malaysia two months later, the Blue Tigers are slated to play against Vietnam on October 9 before going up against Lebanon three days later.
India lost their previous outing against Malaysia 2-4 in October last year
According to a statement on the official website of AIFF, the friendly for the Indian men’s football team will happen against Malaysia at home, but the venue will be announced in due course. They wrote, “The Senior India Men’s team will play a friendly match against Malaysia during the FIFA Window on November 19, 2024. The match will be played in India, the venue for which will be announced later. Malaysia are currently ranked 132rd in the FIFA ranking, while India are ranked 126th. The last time the two teams met was in October 2023 in the Merdeka Cup semi-final. The Blue Tigers lost 2-4.”
Moreover, Manolo Marquez, who was recently appointed as the head coach of Men in Blue, will be continuing with his role of coaching FC Goa in the ongoing Indian Super League (ISL) 2024-25 season. FC Goa have played two matches in the new ISL season, failing to win any of those, and with only one draw to their name, the South Indian club is in ninth place in the 13-team tournament.
