Football: India face narrow loss against Lebanon in King’s Cup third-place playoff

A 77th-minute goal by Kaseem Al Zein crushed India’s hopes of retaining the third place in the 2023 King’s Cup as the Blue Tigers went down 0-1 against Lebanon.

Lebanon, who had failed to get better of India in their last three meetings in Bhubaneswar and Bangalore, proved to be third time lucky despite the Indians putting immense pressure on the rival defence.

Just when it looked like India would force open the Lebanon defence at any moment, things completely went the other way as the west Asian side made most of a corner kick.

Though Indian goalkeeper Sandhu managed to palm away the first attempt, he had no time to do an encore when Kaseem Al Zein went for a spectacular acrobatic back volley from close range. It was a goal that certainly came against the run of play but made all the difference as the Indians failed to come up with a reply during the rest of the match.

Thus India -— the bronze medal winners in 2019, finished their King’s Cup campaign without a win.

While their semi-final clash against mighty Iraq ended in a defeat in tie-breaker after a spirited 2-2 draw in the regulation time, the third-place battle against Lebanon was lost after...

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