CAFA Nations Cup: India begin Khalid Jamil era on a high, record stunning 2-1 victory over Tajikistan

The Indian football team kicked-off the Khalid Jamil era on a positive note and defeated Tajikistan by 2-1 in the CAFA Nations Cup 2025. India had a dream start to the match at the Hisor Central Stadium as they found themselves 2-0 up after just the first 13 minutes. Both the goals came from set-pieces as Anwar Ali and Sandesh Jhingan got onto the scoresheet.

Anwar had provided India with the lead in the fifth minute and Jhingan helped double it up in the 13th minute. Tajikistan had completely gone on the back-foot within the first quarter of the match. Shahrom Samiev pulled a goal back 10 minutes later, however the hosts failed to equalize and ended up losing to the Blue Tigers.

Sandhu was India's top performer

It was a terrific defensive display from Jamil's men in the second half as they didn't allow the Tajikistan to score their second goal. Goalkeeper Gurpreet Singh Sandhu was the hero for India as he saved a penalty and made multiple other top saves to keep the scoreline at 2-1. Notably, this was India's first victory on foreign soil in almost two years as they had last defeated Kuwait at their home in November 2023. Additionally, this was also their first win on Tajik soil in 17 years.

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It was quite a dissappointing defeat for the hosts as they had a lot of chances to level the scores up especially during the second half, however they just weren't able to break India's defence for the second time. They had a golden chance to equalize from the penalty spot, however Rustam Soirov's shot was rather weak and was saved by Sandhu by diving to his right. The Indian goalkeeper then pushed the ball away with his feet to keep India's lead intact.

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This will definitely be a major boost for Jamil, who had replaced Manolo Marquez as India's new manager on August 1,2025. The Blue Tigers will now be facing-off against defending champions Iran in their next match of the tournament on September 1 before wrapping up their group stage with the clash against Afghanistan on September 4.