Fujairah beat India in friendly

India's losing run continued with a 0-1 defeat at the hands of Fujairah Sports Club at the Fujairah Stadium in the UAE. The Indian national football team travelled from their training camp in Dubai across to Fujairah with the aim of getting back to winning ways against the lower division UAE club.

But once more the Indians walked off as the losers, the fifth time in a row, and the injury worries continue to grow. Ahead of this game central defender Anwar was the latest addition to the injury list which already includes Baichung Bhutia, Sunil Chhetri, Subhashish Roy Chowdhury, Arindam Bhattacharya. Others like N.P. Pradeep are just coming back from injuries, while Gurpreet Singh Sandhu joined the squad from the Asian Games as the teams number four keeper replacing another youngster Jagroop Singh.

All this meant that Bob Houghton had to make changes to his starting eleven as Mahesh Gawli replaced Anwar in central defence, while Deepak Mondal replaced Syed Rahim Nabi as left back while Mohammed Rafi started upfront for Clifford Miranda as Bob went back to his usual 4-4-2 system from the 4-5-1 used against the UAE.

Fujairah scored the winner in the 69th minute and India simply wasn't able to give an answer on the pitch as Baichung and Chhetri continue to be heavily missed upfront as Sushil and Rafi aren't suitable replacements and honestly no others are in sight, so if Michael Chopra isn't given Indian citizenship soon I see a major problem there.

India's preparations continue with a friendly game against Hatta Sports Club on Saturday, November 27. Bob Houghton will surely hope for his boys to return to winning ways.


INDIA

1-Subrata Pal; 17-Surkumar Singh, 19-Gouramangi Singh, 14-Mahesh Gawli, 12-Deepak Kumar Mondal; 8-Renedy Singh, 30-Climax Lawrence, 27-Mehrajuddin Wadao, 28-Anthony Pereira (46' 23-Steven Dias); 18-Sushil Kumar Singh, 26-Mohammed Rafi
Substitutes: 16-Gurpreet Singh Sandhu, 6-Baldeep Singh, 7-N.P.Pradeep, 9-Abhishek Yadav, 13-James Lukram Singh, 21-Baljit Singh Sahni, 29-Jagpreet Singh, 41-Rakesh Masih