In their first attempt, the Indian football team, which reached the CAFA Nations Cup playoffs, will get a tough challenge in the third place against Oman on Monday. The Indian team managed to confirm the place in the playoffs with the second place in their group despite the weakness in the front row.

India, ranked 133rd in the world rankings, will have to focus on crossing this weakness in the match against the better team against them. These eight teams are being co-accepted by the tournament of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, in which group matches have been played in Tashkent and Sehor respectively. Both Oman and India finished second in their respective groups.

The teams of Uzbekistan and Iran topped Group A and B respectively. Both these teams will play the final match in Tashkent on Monday. Oman’s team is strong on paper, but India will get the benefit of playing all three matches of the group stage on this ground in Sehor. India, playing for the first time under the supervision of coach Khalid Jamil, started their campaign with a 2–1 win over co-host Tajikistan in Group B. He faced this defeat 0-3 against Iran, but the team finished second in the group by stopping Afghanistan on a goalless draw.

Oman, ranked 79th in the world rankings, defeated Uzbekistan, who qualified for the FIFA World Cup 2026, defeated Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan by a similar margin of 2–1 after stopping at 1-1 par. Oman’s record against India is quite good. After 2000, Oman has won six in nine matches between the two teams, while three matches have been lost.

Oman’s team has come here with a new coach Carlos Quiroz. He has earlier managed the national teams of Iran, UAE and Qatar. The highly experienced Quiroz has also given coaching to Spain’s top club Real Madrid and Portugal, Egypt and South Africa national teams.India’s head coach Khalid Jamil said that his team came here not only to participate in the tournament, but for a special purpose.

In the press conference before the match, Jamil said, “All our players are fine and after these results, there is positivity in all. We have to maintain this positivity in the next match as well. I sincerely hope that we will get a good result. ”

He said, “We felt from the beginning that we can do something good here, and I have to say that it is the result of the players’s trust and hard work that we have reached the play-off stage of the CAFA Nations Cup.” He praised Oman and his coach and said, “Oman is a very good team. He has a good coach (Carlos Quiroz) and the best player. He has performed brilliantly in his group. This will definitely not be easy. We have to perform our best but we are ready for it. ”

Jamil said about India’s disappointing record against Oman, “First and most importantly we have to achieve positive results. This is the most important thing. ”India is preparing for two matches to be played on October 9 and 14 in the FC Asian Cup 2027 Group C qualifiers against Singapore next month.