Akhil Rawat
AIFF Media Team

CHONBURI, THAILAND: One step away from securing qualification for the AFC U17 Asian Cup Saudi Arabia 2025, India will face hosts Thailand in their third and final Group D match at the Chonburi Stadium on Sunday, October 27, 2024, at 18:30 IST.

Friday's 1-0 win over Turkmenistan maintained India's perfect record, taking their tally to six points. However, Thailand beat Brunei Darussalam 19-0 later in the day to take top spot on goal difference. India had earlier beaten Brunei 13-0, while Thailand defeated Turkmenistan 2-0. The 10 group winners and five best second-placed teams will qualify for the final tournament. The equation of Group D is that a draw will be enough for Thailand to qualify as toppers, while India need a win to guarantee qualification. However, depending on other group results, a point may also be enough for Ishfaq Ahmed's side to make the cut as one of the best runners-up. There could be more clarity on the permutations after matches across other groups finish on Sunday afternoon. Should India end up losing to Thailand, they will need to hope for heavily favourable results from a lot of other groups.

However, as long as everything's in your hands, there's no necessity to look for favours. That's the Blue Colts' mantra for Sunday. The mentality is to get the win and book the ticket to Saudi Arabia next spring, said Ahmed.

"For us, that's the way. We just play for three points. We will give our best as we do in every match. Whatever we have left in us, we will put that on the line," said the Indian coach.

There was some dissatisfaction in the Indian camp after their utter dominance over Turkmenistan throughout 90 minutes only resulted in a narrow victory. In the end, Ningthoukhongjam Rishi Singh's 44th-minute strike proved to be the match winner. Md Arbash found the net in the second half with a wonderful finish, but the goal did not count because of a tight offside call on Vishal Yadav. Ahmed made plenty of attacking changes in the hunt for more goals but it wasn't to be. But the decision to alter the forward line and hand Rishi a start proved to be fruitful.

"I was confident that we would play good football here and we've done that. Despite Turkmenistan's physical presence, we dealt with set pieces very well. I was happy to see the number of chances we created, but at the same time, a bit disappointed that we couldn't take more of them. Goal difference can be a crucial thing to qualify for the finals. So, there are some mixed feelings. More goals could've been the icing on the cake.

"Regarding Rishi, me and my staff talked before the game. We thought he would be good at exploiting pockets of spaces that Turkmenistan leave between the defence and the midfield line and he did very well," said Ahmed.

Rishi, who scored his second goal for India, adding to his header against Nepal in the SAFF U17 Championship semi-final, said, "I am very happy to score the winning goal and help the team. I'd like to thank my teammates and coaches. We are ready for the last game against Thailand."

Thailand are expected to be a different ball-game altogether. Playing at home backed by their loud fans who've been chanting non-stop in every game, Jadet Meelarp's side are oozing confidence and have pummelled 21 goals already. Thailand boast of an impressive unbeaten record in 2024. They only lost on penalties to Australia in the final of the ASEAN Championship in July after beating Vietnam, Malaysia and Timor-Leste. Ahead of the Asian qualifiers, Thailand beat UAE 4-2 in a friendly.

Ahmed acknowledged the opponents' quality and their home advantage, but placed full belief on his boys who have also won every single competitive fixture this year.

"We are both very good sides. And when you beat these are the kind of teams  playing a good brand of football, only then you deserve to qualify for the final tournament. Our biggest challenge is to recover since there's just a day's gap between matches and we've played twice in the heat and humidity of 4 pm here. But yeah we even saw Thailand, who have only played at 8 pm, had a couple of players getting cramps in the first game. So, I'm extremely proud of my boys with the strength they've shown and I have no complaints. Hopefully, we get three points and qualify tomorrow," concluded Ahmed.