5 Most Heartbreaking Second-half Losses in Indian Football History

Modified Jan 17, 2019 21:26 IST

These second-half goals were the most heart-wrenching moments an Indian football fan had to endure in his lifetime

#1 2019 AFC Asian Cup Group Stage - India 0-1 Bahrain (Jamal Rashed 90+1')

India just had to last three more minutes against Bahrain to make it to the next round of the 2019 AFC Asian Cup

Like in the 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup and the 2018 AFC U-16 Championships, the senior Indian team gave a very good account of counter-attacking football in the first two group stage matches of the 2019 AFC Asian Cup.

In the opener against Thailand, the Blue Tigers surprised the War Elephants by humiliating them 4-1 before luck favoured UAE in a 2-0 victory for the hosts. The fact that they required only a draw to progress to the knockouts played into their mind which ultimately cost them.

Against Bahrain, they went extremely defensive and lobbed meaningless long balls up front. The Middle-Eastern nation lodged a barrage of shots and, if it weren't for Sandesh Jhingan's heroic defending and Gurpreet Singh Sandhu's brilliant positioning, India would have been behind way before.

India's scrappy defending ultimately favoured Bahrain as Pronay Halder gifted them the penalty in the 90th minute. Jamal Rashed waited for Gurpreet Singh Sandhu to dive towards his left before slotting the ball in the centre of the net to shatter a billion Indian hearts.

Edited by Aravind Suchindran