Hassan Al Enezi, seen walking with a heavy belt on his lap after the match, needed just 10 minutes to turn the tide. Seven minutes later, Mubarak Al Faneni doubled Kuwait’s lead before making the score 3-0 at halftime.
In the final 45 minutes, Kuwait possessed the ball about equally, and in the 69th minute Id Nasser Al Rashedi scored his fourth and final goal of the match with a powerful strike from the right flank into the opposite corner of the goal.
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I look at the development of our game. Sometimes we play well, but our ball possession can get better. Before coming here, we played tough matches against African teams. It is very difficult to play in such weather, because the humidity is very high. But I have to congratulate our players for the previous two matches, said the head coach of the Kuwait team Ruy Fernando Bento at the post-match press conference.
Kuwait, which has dominated the tournament so far, will play India in the final match of the group stage, and they will face a much tougher task given the form in which the Blue Tigers are in, as well as home court advantage. I look at my team first and foremost. We’re playing and winning, but I know we can do better. Right now it’s important to rebuild the players, and after that we’ll look at them (India). I talk to the players all the time about what we can control, I can’t control our opponents. We can control our game, our system, our process. And that’s the most important thing to me right now, the coach said when asked about his chances of finishing at the top of the Group A table.
If we look at India’s recent form, the team has kept seven clean wins (except for the match against Nepal), while Kuwait has scored seven times in its last two matches. The Indian team runs good attacks from both flanks, as seen in the Intercontinental Cup final against Lebanon, when Lallianzuala Chhangte teamed up with Nikhil Pujarai, after which Sunil Chhetri scored the first goal of the match.
Despite this, the coach of the Kuwaiti team is not very willing to change the formation. Believe me, I don’t change our formation, and when we finish the game, I will see whether we played well or not. Because if you rearrange your team several times, the players can’t figure out whatyou want, he said.147252
