Thailand held on to an early goal from Teeratep Winothai to beat India 1-0 in the men's Olympic (under-23) qualifying football tournament in Chennai on Wednesday evening.
In a way, it could be considered a good performance by the Indians as they lost only by a solitary goal, though they were lacking in many areas.
This was India's second defeat. Earlier it lost its first match to Iraq, in Jordan, 0-3.
India were expected to make good of the home advantage, but were totally disorganised in the first half even after conceding a goal in the ninth minute.
In fact, the two Indian strikers, Shushil Kumar Singh and Manjit Singh, were made to fend themselves most often and did not get any support inside the Thai box.
However, there was a sea of change in the team's performance in the second half as India was able to make inroads into the Thai goal area and made the rival defenders work overtime. It was also evident that the Thai players did not enjoy the felicity that they had in the first half.
Going on the attack from the word go, the Thai strikers made two forays into Indian territory but succeeded with their third.
Piyachart Thamaphan set up a long ball close to the striking area and Winothai showed excellent reflexes in trapping it well, turning and volleying home. The ball came off the goalkeeper Subrata Paul, but Winothai swiftly booted home past defender Masih Rakesh.
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