CAFA Nations Cup 2025: Khalid Jamil tastes first defeat as India suffer 3-0 defeat to Iran
Mehdi Taremi helps Iran to victory over India
Khalid Jamil’s life as the head coach of the India national team got off to an exceptional start, with his side scoring twice inside the first 15 minutes against Tajikistan in their opening match of the 2025 CAFA Nations Cup last week en route to a 2-1 victory and confirming our football predictions.
The result brought an end to a three-match winless run for the Blue Tigers across all competitions and was their first win in a competitive fixture since beating Kuwait in the second round of the World Cup qualifiers back in November 2023.
That victory over Tajikistan was also significant for India due to their opponents being ranked 33 places above them according to FIFA’s latest ranking, and came despite facing them without any players from Indian Super League champions Mohun Bagan.
However, despite a valiant effort and keeping a clean sheet for an hour, Jamil’s side were unable to take anything away from their second match of the competition, with 20th-ranked Iran claiming a 3-0 victory.
Just hours after securing a permanent move to Greek giants Olympiacos, Mehdi Taremi came off the bench to net for Team Melli in stoppage time, while Amirhossein Hosseinzadeh and Ali Alipour also got themselves on the scoresheet.
Promising signs for India under new boss?
Despite losing the match against Iran, the final scoreline did not completely tell the full story, as India clearly had a game plan from the start and did not allow their opponents any clear-cut chances through the entire first half.
Sandesh Jhingan and Anwar Ali were excellent in central defence for the Blue Tigers until Jamil tweaked his formation to 5-4-1 by bringing on Chinglensana Singh just before the hour mark.
The alteration allowed Iran more space in midfield and directly led to Hosseinzadeh’s opener. However, Jamil quickly recognised the issue and opted to withdraw Singh just 12 minutes after he was introduced to the game.
Unfortunately, after another impressive half hour of defensive solidity, being a goal down and forced to chase the game finally told, and India were picked apart late in the match, conceding in the 89th minute and the sixth minute of stoppage time at the end of the 90.
India are now third in third place in Group B of the 2025 CAFA Nations Cup, three points behind Iran. They have to win their final match of the group against Afghanistan on Thursday to keep their hopes of finishing in the top two intact.
