Head buried in his hands, Sunil Chhetri sat. On the pitch, Ashley Westwood, his coach through two I-League titles and a Federation Cup at Bengaluru FC, was being thrown in the air. Between disgrace and delirium there was less than 50 yards. Chhetri had scored to his 94th international goal in the 38th minute becoming the first player to have found the net in his first, 25th, 50th, 75th, 100th, 125th and 150th matches. But that will be a footnote on a night Afghanistan came back to score twice and win 2-1.
India remained second after the game in group A of this 2026 World Cup qualifiers and on course for a berth in the third round. But it is a quest for which they keep increasing the difficulty quotient. Till the 71st minute, India, leading by Chhetri’s penalty in Guwahati on Tuesday, would have needed to avoid defeat against Kuwait in Kolkata in June. Now, it is a must-win.
To India’s seven shots, Afghanistan had 12; to the home team’s one shot on target, they had five. No wonder Westwood referred to the “stats” in the post-match television interview. Four Afghanistan players on the pitch have no clubs, neither did one on the bench, he said. Fitness could have been a problem, especially after Afghanistan started the same 11 they did last Thursday in Abha, Saudi Arabia. But they fought and ended the stronger of the teams.
“With the attacking players we have, there was no way, we wouldn’t score against India,” said Westwood, once in the reckoning for the job that is now Igor Stimac’s.
Like India’s goal, the equaliser in the 70th minute came against the run of play. Anwar Ali made two blocks, Subhasish Bose chested it out but only as far as Rahmat Akbary whose shot nutmegged Rahul Bheke wrong-footing Gurpreet Singh Sandhu. Amiri’s header in the eighth minute which brought out a smart save from Sandhu was their only chance before that. Soon after, Taufee Skandari fired from range and Sandhu was called into action again.
This was more than what India had managed and by then Chhetri had been substituted. Replacements Anirudh Thapa and Lallianzuala Chhangte combined along with Nikhil Poojary to find Manvir, now a striker, who headed over. No impact from the bench, Stimac said, repeating the point he has made since the Asian Cup.
Never in control after a bright start, India didn’t bargain for a communications failure between Sandhu and Ali leading to the goalkeeper barreling into an attacker and conceding a penalty. Defender Sharif Mukhammad, without a club, sent Sandhu the wrong way in the 88th minute and with India never looking like they could score, Afghanistan players were collapsing in tears of joy soon after.
Eighteen players have boycotted the national team and the rest, mostly cobbled from lower leagues and amateur teams in Europe and Canada, have bested the best of India. In 2013, with the Indian Super League (ISL) an idea whose time had not yet come, Afghanistan had done that in the final of the SAFF Championship. Small consolation that they had their best team then.
After three draws, two of them through late goals, and a win in 2022 through a goal even later, this was the first time India, ranked 117, have lost to Afghanistan in nearly five years under Stimac.
“At time we lacked control. Our players were expected to fight harder. And we conceded silly goals,” said Stimac. Then he stated the obvious: their passing and ball control again showed where we stand, he said.
Chhetri had not scored for India after October 13. It looked like the lean spell would break three minutes into this 2026 World Cup qualifier but Chhetri found the upright. What should have been a goal was not because Manvir skied the rebound. Manvir won the penalty when Afghanistan skipper Haroon Amiri used his hand to stop a delivery. Chhetri did his two-step routine and fired into an angle too acute for goalkeeper Ovays Azizi.