Some goodbyes are hard to say; others are necessary, if not inevitable. Sunil Chhetri’s farewell to international football at the Salt Lake Stadium on Thursday went less like a dream and more like a reality check on Indian football.
By playing out a goalless draw with Kuwait in the second-round fixture of the 2026 World Cup qualifiers, Igor Stimac’s India not only failed to live up to the occasion and give their captain a fitting farewell but more importantly and worryingly, they blew a golden opportunity of conquering a historic frontier.
India and Kuwait played out a 0-0 draw in their FIFA World Cup Qualification second-round match at Kolkata’s Salt Lake Stadium on Thursday. This was a rather disappointing result not just for India, but also for their talismanic skipper Sunil Chhetri, who played his final international match on Thursday.
The game was heavily intense in the first half with Kuwait creating a lot of chances and testing India’s defence. The Blue Tigers, however, had just three shots on target throughout the match and were victims of not making the best of chances. This result puts India in a tough spot as far as their qualification hopes for the World Cup qualifiers third round is concerned.
In what was Sunil Chhetri’s 151st and last dance in Indian colours, victory may have eluded him at the full-time whistle, but emotions couldn’t. After a lap around the 58,921 fans at the Salt Lake Stadium, the captain, leader, and legend, let out his farewell tears when the Indian players and team officials gave him a guard of honour to the tunnel. In a warm gesture, each one of Kuwait’s players and officials also paid their respects with handshakes and hugs to the Indian skipper.
A draw with a depleted Afghanistan and then a loss to them in Guwahati, coupled with Thursday’s stalemate with Kuwait — if all this points to the way how India have made a mess of their progress chances to the third round of qualifiers and gained an automatic Asian Cup berth, it has also highlighted Stimac’s inability to find solutions in keeping hopes alive. Add to this that his team has failed to score a single open-field goal in seven matches and the team’s post-Chhetri struggles look more profound and pronounced.
Even against Kuwait, with high stakes but the advantage of playing in front of a packed Salt lake Stadium, Stimac’s system was reactive and players were guilty of being lethargic in movements and frequently drifting into useless positions showed the coach had little in his bag to inspire a turnaround.