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India notch first win in FIFA World Cup qualifiers

BENGALURU: Robin Singh helped India break their losing streak in the FIFA World Cup qualifiers. Playing at his favourite stomping ground, the Bengaluru FC forward scored the winner against Guam to earn India their first win in six matches on Thursday.

Under heavy rain at the Sree Kanteerava stadium, Robin turned his marker at the edge of the box and fired a thunderous shot with his right to give India the lead in the 11th minute. India held on despite being down to 10-men for the whole of second half after medio Sehnaj Singh was ejected in the 42nd minute for a dangerous tackle.

The win helped India stay alive, at least till their next game away to Iran in March next year, in their quest to qualify for the 2019 Asian Cup, while the defeat almost crushed Guam's hopes for a top-2 finish ahead of Oman to advance to the third round.

"I'm happy that we won but we beat Guam and not Iran so don't get very excited. We need more international experience. If you ask any U-19 player how many games he will say 40-50 games but if you ask the same question to an English U-19 he will say 250 matches. That's the difference. You need to give them more exposure to help them graduate to the Indian team," India coach Stephen Constantine.

Despite playing with an extra man for the whole of the second half, Guam failed to make it count as India held on showing great hunger to score their first victory. Though most of the action was in India's half Guam never looked like scoring as the Indian keeper Gurpreet Singh Sandhu and the defence marshalled by Sandesh Jhingan played their hearts out.

Their best chance came in the 79th minute but Marcus Lopez blasted wide with only 'keeper Gurpreet to beat after being set being set up by Ryan Guy. Guam went close at least twice more but Gurpreet was in no mood to drop three points. With the defence and Gurpreet in full alert, India relied on fast counters to double their lead. In the 71st minute, Chhetri almost made it 2-0.

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