Thailand vs India

Thammasat University Convention Centre forms the backdrop for Thailand’s first international clash against India in six years.

It’s Thailand’s final warm-up fixture ahead of further AFC Asian Cup qualifying matches in June, with the hosts seeking a third consecutive victory after seeing off Sri Lanka and Afghanistan in the March international break. It was a perfect response to a 2-0 defeat to Vietnam in January, meaning Masatada Ishii’s men have only lost three of their last 15 internationals (W10, D2, L3). With eight of their ten wins in that sequence seeing the War Elephants find the back of the net multiple times, it stands to reason the visiting India can expect a long afternoon in Pathum Thani. Despite their strong pre-match favoritism, Thailand cannot afford to take anything for granted after losing their last two H2H meetings with India via a combined score of 5-1. 

Both those matches date back to 2019, so there’s no real relevance to the current context, given how much both squads have evolved over the past six years. India fared well during the last international break, yet they failed to back up a 3-0 rout of Maldives, drawing 0-0 with sub-par Bangladesh in their opening Asian Cup qualifier. That win against the continent’s minnows remains India’s only triumph in two and a half years (D6, L7), highlighting their underdog status in this encounter. They’ve at least been tight defensively, keeping three clean sheets across their last six outings while conceding precisely once in two of the remaining three. The only exception was a 3-0 battering to Syria in a friendly last September.