7 times Indian football team punched above their weight in international tournaments

1970 Asian Games, Bangkok

There were ten teams competing, with two groups of three and one group of four. The top two teams in each group advanced to the quarter-final's group stage and then, the top two of each group in that round progressed to the semis. India was drawn alongside the hosts Thailand and South Vietnam.

Squad

Goalkeepers: Kuppuswami Sampath, Bandya Kakade

Backs: Sudhir Karmakar, Syed Nayeemuddin(C), Chandreshwar Prasad, Nirmal (Jhunu) Sengupta, Altaf Ahmed, Shivdas, Kalyan Saha

Half Backs: A. Latif, J. Bassi, Doraiswamy Nataraj, Ajaib Singh

Forwards: Shyam Thapa, Subhas Bhowmick, Mohammed Habib, Amar Bahadur, Magan Singh, Manjit Singh, Sukalyan Ghosh Dastidar

Coach: GMH Basha Manager: PK Banerjee

P.K. Banerjee was the coach who guided India to a bronze

India started the campaign with a 2-2 draw against Thailand and Bhowmick was the star performer as he bagged a brace. The next day India faced South Vietnam and defeated them 2-0 thanks to the goals from Habib and Manjit Singh. In the quarter-final's group, India were drawn with Japan and Indonesia. India started well as they won 3-0 against Indonesia with the goals from D Natraj, Magan Singh and Thapa but a narrow 1-0 defeat to Japan saw them progress to the semis as the quarter-final's group runners-up.

Burma were the opponents in the semi-finals and they proved too strong for India, winning 2-0. Now, India had to face Japan in the bronze medal's match. Japan came into the game as favourites, having won previously when these 2 nations met earlier in the competition. But India produced a gritty display to edge-out a narrow 1-0 victory, winning the bronze. This was the last medal won by India in football.