Kochi: India ended their 2018 World Cup football qualifying campaign on a disappointing note as they lost to Turkmenistan 1-2 in their last group match to finish at the bottom of the heap here on Tuesday.
The Indians led 1-0 at the breather with a dominating show in the first session in hot and humid conditions courtesy a Sandesh Jhingan strike, but conceded two goals in the second half to lose the Group D match at the Nehru Stadium.
Jhingan's 27th minute header raised hopes for the Indians to end their disastrous World Cup qualifying campaign on a winning note, but they allowed Turkmenistan to come back strongly in the second half with a sloppy performance.
The visiting side, which struggled to cope with the heat and humidity in the first half, regrouped themselves in the second and pumped in two goals through Amanov Arslan (49th) and Serdaraly Atayew (70th) to collect full three points.
Turkmenistan also wasted a penalty early into the match with Arslan shooting the ball wide off the target in the 21st minute. India ended their campaign at the bottom of the five-team Group D with just three points with a lone win over Guam in their home leg match last year.
Turkmenistan, who were also already out of reckoning in the World Cup qualifying campaign, ended at third position with 13 points. The tiny Pacific nation of Guam ended above India at fourth with seven points.
Today's match did not have much significance for India as far as their World Cup qualification was concerned as they were already assured of a bottom finish irrespective of the result. A win, though, could have some impact on India's chances for qualification for the 2019 Asian Cup.
India were to feature in a play-off round of even to feature in the qualifiers of the Asian Cup irrespective of today's result. But a win on Tuesday would have ensured a lesser team for them in the play-off round of the Asian Cup qualifiers.
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