Hyderabad ∙ The Manolo Marquez era in Indian football started with a goalless draw. India and Mauritius played out a goalless draw (0–0) in the first match of the Intercontinental Cup football at the Gachibowli Stadium. This was India’s first match under Spanish coach Manolo Marquez. India returns with a draw after failing to score in the first tournament after Indian captain Sunil Chhetri retired from international football. India’s next match in the tournament is against Syria on the 9th at 7.30 pm.

India tried to score goals from the start against Mauritius (179), which is far behind India (124) in the FIFA rankings, but there was no striker to replace Chhetri in the forward line. India played over-defensive from the start, as if to compensate for the habit of conceding goals due to the forgetful attack style in the last minutes during the time of former coach Igor Stimach.

In the first minute of the game, the Mauritius attack reached India’s goal, but luckily it did not score. After that, India gradually started attacking from the 3rd minute.

Chinglensana Singh’s header went wide in the sixth minute, India’s biggest unlucky moment in the game. In the 26th minute, a move by Rahul Bheke, Laliansuwala Changte and Ashish Rai failed to produce results. Aiming for a goal in the second half, both the teams made substitutions, but India’s stand that there was no game without defense kept the goal away. The Indian team had 65% possession of the ball in the match. But only one shot hit the goal. Mauritius, who had the ball for a short period of time, managed to fire a shot at the Indian goal.