India goes down 1-6 to Uruguay as Thapa provides lone bright spot in Kolkata

Uruguay's Darwin Nunez (jersey number 9) celebrates with teammates after his side’s first goal during the international friendly against India. | Photo Credit: K.R. DEEPAK

A cunning goal by India, thunder and lightning over the stadium and a tense contest against a two-time World Cup winner, Uruguay — the first 30 minutes of the international friendly were worth every penny spent to watch the match. But the next hour saw La Celeste pull away with a 6-1 victory over the Blue Tigers at the Salt Lake Stadium here on Tuesday.

Maximiliano Araujo netted a brace; Rodrigo Zalazar, Rodrigo Aguirre and Juan Sanabria struck once each, while Darwin Nunez converted from the spot as Uruguay secured a dominant win in the rain-affected contest. Anirudh Thapa had raised India’s hopes with a clinical strike on the follow-up, but Diego Forlan’s side upped the ante after the equaliser to put the game to bed in the second half.

Uruguay made seven changes to its starting 11 from the one that played against South Korea, but marched up the pitch right from kick-off, creating its first chance in the second minute – a cross from the right for an onrushing Darwin Nunez, which was intercepted and cleared by Anwar Ali.

Eight minutes later, Pramveer brought down Federico Vinas in the box, and Nunez converted with a cool head, sending Gurpreet Singh Sandhu to the wrong side. Four minutes later, Araujo left the woodwork shaking with a right-footed shot.

India tried to find a reply through counterattacks, and its most reliable attacking threat – Ryan Williams – came to the fore yet again. Williams stole the ball off Emiliano Martinez in the midfield, sprinted into the final third and shot on target. Goalkeeper Thiago Cardozo, making his senior team debut with Uruguay, looked unsure. Though he made a save, Thapa shot on the follow-up to bring over 37,000 fans at the stadium to their feet.

The scoreboard, quite remarkably, now read 1-1.

India's Anirudh Thapa celebrates after scoring his side’s only goal during the international friendly against Uruguay. | Photo Credit: K.R. DEEPAK

Just then, thunder rumbled over the stadium, lightning flashed, and with the hydration break, the match was temporarily suspended. As referees and the match commissioner inspected conditions, players were escorted to their respective dressing rooms while coaches remained busy adjusting tactics.

When the match resumed 35 minutes later, it was Forlan who had the last laugh. Within a minute, his boys were 2-1 up – Nahitan Nandez crossed from the right for Araujo to shoot it home.

India could have felt it was hard done by nature, with the weather interrupting its momentum. But even when play resumed after half-time, it was evident that Uruguay was a class apart.

Within 15 minutes, the South Americans struck twice – Nunez setting up Zalazar outside the box, who beat Gurpreet on his near post, and Araujo rounding the goalie for his team’s fourth.

By now, the crowd had gone completely silent. The rain had stopped, and the discomfort of an embarrassing scoreline made the air thick with pathos. Just then, Lalengmawia Ralte and Mohammed Sanan gave a sudden ray of hope, with two shots from distance within eight minutes, forcing saves by Cardozo.

AS IT HAPPENED | INDIA VS URUGUAY HIGHLIGHTS

Any cheer that had been raised by the two chances was quashed within two minutes of Sanan’s shot — an attack against the run of play, with Rodrigo Aguirre, Facundo Pellistri and Sanabria combining to get the ball into India’s final third. Pellistri set up Sanabria in India’s box, who then tucked it into the bottom-left corner.

Gurpreet’s nightmare continued. So did the act of him being replaced for a second game in a row. Having conceded 10 goals in the last three matches, Albino Gomes came on for him after the second hydration break.

Pellistri and Aguirre continued to be a menace for India around the box and combined in the 86th minute as the latter whipped in a left-footed shot that kissed the top-left corner past Gomes.

The contest had long been over – the wave of optimism from the matches against Panama and Brazil had quietly made its way out of the stadium like the hundreds of fans that slowly walked out.

India’s coach Khalid Jamil had stressed concentration as the key for such fixtures. He proved his point with Brazil and Panama.

But after this battering, he will have to have a long look at himself and his boys to figure out what really went off the tracks – the mentality, concentration or the quality of the Indian men’s football team altogether.

And he will have limited time to figure that out for New Zealand, another World Cup-playing nation, which awaits in November, with the added challenge on him of away conditions and the pressure to pull the Blue Tigers out of the rut they found themselves in on a rainy night in Kolkata.