After the heartbreak against hosts UAE, India prepares to take on Bahrain in their final group stage match on Monday, January 14.
When and where to watch the match
The match between India and Bahrain will kick off at the Sharjah Stadium in Sharjah at 8 pm local time, 12 am SGT (Next day) and 4 pm GMT.
India vs Bahrain preview
The match against UAE was one of those for India where the ball just refused to cross the line. The "Blue Tigers" hit the post twice, came extremely close on four occasions but just could not find the back of the net. The Indian fans will hope fate has kept all the goals aside for their clash against Bahrain.
Like in their previous two games, India will go into the match as underdogs but Bahrain will have to be extremely cautious as the Indian team has given a very good account of themselves in the tournament thus far.
For India, they will have to keep things tight at the back after conceding three goals in their first two games. Although the second goal against UAE was a result of India pressing forward for an equaliser, the first goal can be attributed to confusion at the back between Sandesh Jhingan and Anas Edathodika.
Up front, Sunil Chhetri was guilty of missing two good chances and he will hope to bury whatever comes his way on Monday to propel India to the knockout stages of the AFC Asian Cup 2019.
India's qualification scenario
- If India wins, they will go through to the round of 16 with 6 points from three games.
- If the India-Bahrain match ends in a draw, India will finish on 4 points. Then the result of the match between Thailand and UAE will dictate India's fate. If UAE wins, India will go through as the second place team. If Thailand wins, India will go through as one of the best third-placed team. In case of a draw in the other match, India will go finish second.
- If India loses, then they will have to depend on other results. If UAE wins, then India will be third and wait for results from other groups. If Thailand wins, then India will crash out.
Probable XIs
India: India: Gurpreet Singh Sandhu; Pritam Kotal, Sandesh Jhingan, Anas Edathodika, Subhasish Bose; Pronay Halder, Anirudh Thapa; Udanta Singh, SunilChhetri, Halicharan Narzary; Ashique Kuruniyan
Bahrain: Sayed Shubbar Alawi; Ahmed Juma, Waleed Al Hayam, Hamad Al-Shamsan, Sayed Redha Isa; Komail Al Aswad, Abdulwahab Al-Safi; Sayed Dhiya Saeed, Mohamed Marhoon, Sami Al-Husaini; Mohamed Al Romaihi
Global TV Listings
- Arab League: beIN Sports
- Asia-Pacific: Fox International Channels
- Australia: Fox Sports, ABC
- Brazil: SporTV
- China: CCTV
- Europe: Eurosport
- Hong Kong: Now TV
- Indonesia: Sindo TV
- Iran: IRIB
- Japan: TV Asahi, NHK BS1
- Malaysia: TV3
- New Zealand: Sky Sport
- North America: ONE World Sports
- South Africa: SABC
- South Korea: KBS, SBS, MBC
- Thailand: Channel 7
- Philippines: ABS-CBN Sports+Action
- Uzbekistan: SPORT-UZ
