King's Cup 2023: Iraq beat India 5-4 on penalties to qualify for final

The Indian football team, without Sunil Chhetri, went down fighting to Iraq as they lost the 2023 King’s Cup semi-final after the match went to penalty shootout in Thailand’s 700th Anniversary Stadium on Thursday. After the match ended 2-2 in regulation time, Iraq beat India 5-4 on penalties. They will face either Thailand or Lebanon in Sunday’s final, while India will play in the third place playoff game the same day.

FULL-TIME ⌛

It's a defeat on penalties at the end, but the #BlueTigers 🐯 have put in a stellar performance tonight 👏👏👏

IRQ 🇮🇶 2-2 🇮🇳 IND

🇮🇶: ✅✅✅✅✅
🇮🇳: ❌✅✅✅✅#IRQIND ⚔️ #49thKingsCup2023 🏆 #IndianFootball ⚽ pic.twitter.com/eS4b9mgqpx

— Indian Football Team (@IndianFootball) September 7, 2023

India were leading 2-1 till the 79th minute when the referee awarded a soft penalty to Iraq after their striker Aymen Ghadhban was squeezed by two defenders in the box during a tussle to get on to a high cross. It did not look like a clear-cut penalty but Ghadhban himself stepped up to take the kick from the spot and scored to level the match 2-2 and take it to the penalty shootout. Under the tournament’s rule, the match will be decided via penalty shootout if the scores are levelled in the regulation time and there will be no extra time play. It was a creditable show by the Indian team, who were without their talismanic striker and captain Chhetri, who missed the tournament after becoming a father recently. India played on equal terms against Iraq, ranked 70th in the FIFA chart (as against their 99th), for the most part of the semi-final match. Earlier, Mahesh Naorem had given India the lead in the 16th minute before Karim Ali equalised in the 28th minute, also from a penalty goal. India took the lead in the 51st minute with Iraq captain and goalkeeper Jalal Hasan conceding an own goal with a howler of an effort. Iraq were reduced to 10 men in the injury stoppage time as Zidane Iqbal was sent off for elbowing Brandon Fernandez but India could not capitalise much on that as the regulation time ended within a minute and there was no extra time of play. The loss ended India’s 11-match unbeaten streak this year. India had played seven matches against Iraq earlier with the ‘Lions of Mesopotamia’ winning six times, while one game had ended in a draw. The two teams played last in November 2010 in an international friendly match when Iraq won 2-0. With inputs from PTI