Manolo Marquez will have to wait for his first win as India head coach as his team played out a 1-1 draw in an entertaining international football friendly against Vietnam here on Saturday.
Vietnam took the lead in the 38th minute through Nguyen Hoang Duc before Farukh Choudhary equalised in the 53rd minute at the Thien Truong Stadium, around 100km from Hanoi.
Before this game, India had drawn against Mauritius and lost to Syria under Marquez’s coaching.
Ranked 116th, Vietnam are 10 spots higher than India (126th) in the Fifa rankings.
In an eventful first half, India goalkeeper and captain Gurpreet Singh Sandhu stopped a penalty kick awarded to Vietnam in the 10th minute after Rahul Bheke fouled a home-side attacker. Vietnam captain Que Ngoc Hai’s shot went straight to Sandhu.
India played much better in the second half. They had periods of dominance and also found the equaliser in the 53rd minute.
Defender Anwar Ali sent a long aerial ball from near the centre line and Choudhary won an aerial duel with the Vietnam captain and chipped the ball over an onrushing goalie Nguyen Filip into the empty net.
PTI
