India went the entirety of 2024 without a win after drawing Malaysia 1-1 at the Gachibowli stadium in Hyderabad, with Manolo Marquez's search for a first victory in charge of the national team still continuing. Paulo Josue opened the scoring thanks to an error from Gurpreet Singh Sandhu, with Rahul Bheke equalizing for India in the first half.
Despite Malaysia opening the game by winning the ball and striking from range in the opening seconds, it was India who had the better of the ball in the opening exchanges. Marquez had noted that Pau Marti liked to play the 'Barcelona way' ahead of the match, but the visitors attempts at building out from the back were completely thwarted as India's high-energy frontline of Farukh Chaudhary and Irfan Yadwad caused issues.
Malaysia had to resort to long-balls and ironically that proved to work for them. A regulation hack up the pitch from Azam Azmi Murad saw Gurpreet Singh Sandhu come out of his box to clear the ball, but the Indian goalkeeper misjudged his header, as the ball bounced behind him into space. Paulo Josue ran past Jhingan and Sandhu onto the ball, collected it and tapped home into an empty net to give Malaysia the lead in the 19th minute, completely undoing all of India's excellent work defensively.
India weren't too bad offensively as well - they kept exploiting the space down the right wing as Malaysian left-back Daniel Ting kept bombing forward. Lallianzuala Chhangte had plenty of joy down the wings, where he opted to send his crosses with his right foot, instead of cutting inside on his left. It was a stratagem that earned India plenty of corners - and that proved to be the host's route back into the game.
Brandon Fernandes took a corner from the right in the 39th minute, and sent in a peach of a delivery, just begging to be headed in. Sandesh Jhingan held off his marker, allowing for space at the near post, and it was Rahul Bheke who left Nooa Laine for dead, running into the vacated space and heading home from close range to draw India level. India amped up the pace to close out the half, but Malaysia held on to go into the break on level terms.
The second half saw India huff and puff, with Irfan Yadwad causing plenty of problems for Malaysia. He took a shot from outside the box, but that was as close as India went in the second half.
Malaysia went close with substitute Safawi Rasid coming close with an acrobatic overhead kick, as Gurpreet Singh Sandhu cleared a cross out to him. The Indian goalkeeper was fairly nervous all night, but redeemed himself in injury time. Fergus Tierney headed a cross from the right onto the upright, and as the ball rebounded to Rasid in the box, his hammer of a shot looked destined for goal, only for Gurpreet to pull off a save and thus preserve the draw for India.
India will next feature in March of 2025, as the 2027 AFC Asian Cup qualifiers begin, with India in Pot 1 for the draw on December 9th of this year.
What they said:
Pau Marti, caretaker coach of Malaysia:
"I'm really satisfied with the performance - the players adjusted well to the game. The plan we had worked well - we had more chances than them and could have won the game in the second half."
"We expected India to press, so we were not surprised. We tried our best to play out, but we also tried to go long because India could struggle with the ball in behind. We had a lot of chances and we need to be more clinical."
Dion Cools, captain of Malaysia:
"In general, with the ball it was quite hard to find a solution and create open-play chances. India did well to stop us and it was a challenging game for us. India has a lot of quality in the team, and you could see both teams were well prepared. Maybe with the last-minute chance we could have got more, but 1-1 is a fair result."
Manolo Marquez, head coach of India:
"Typical friendly game - without pace and very slow. I am a little disappointed. The players were okay - Irfan played a good game and Jithin's 15 minutes were okay - it's difficult in your first game."
"It was good work [overall]. Every goal kick took a minute - the pace was very slow. We didn't adapt to this game - we equalized in a set-piece. It's true they equalized in an action without danger - their last action was dangerous [referring to Tierney's header off the post], but more or less the result was fair."
"We have four months till the next break. The list [squad] will be more clear in the next window - more or less the league will be over."
You can relive the action, as it happened: