Intercontinental Cup 2018: India vs New Zealand, 3 things that went wrong for Sunil Chhetri and co

#2 Midfielders performing the vanishing act to perfection

Md. Rafique (L) and Anirudh Thapa (R) in action

Rowlin Borges, Md. Rafique and Anirudh Thapa were completely overrun by the New Zealand midfielders. There seemed to be no proper planning in the midfield, as most of the attacks happened with aimless long balls being played to the strikers.

Playing Rafique on the right wing was another blunder that Stephen committed, and he even tried to rectify it with an early substitution, but that also didn’t work in India’s favour. The distribution of the midfielders was poor and at times they made schoolboy errors, gifting possession to the All Whites.

The will to win back possession or second balls seemed to be lacking, as huge gaps appeared between the midfielders and the defenders, which the All Whites attackers took full advantage of. The midfield, in general, seemed to have no answer to Sarpreet Singh, as the Indian origin New Zealand midfielder who bossed around in the middle of the park, creating numerous chances for the Fritz Schmid side.

Halicharan Narzary, who came on as a second-half substitute had a poor game, as he committed some silly fouls and could not capitalize on numerous crossing opportunities.