AFC Futsal Asian Cup 2026 Qualifiers: India beat Mongolia for first ever futsal victory

The AFC Futsal Asian Cup 2026 Qualifiers in Kuwait has been a trial by fire for India. After going down 1-4 to hosts Kuwait, they faced a 1-10 drubbing at the hands of Australia on Monday.

But on Wednesday, the Futsal Tigers turned the tables to beat Mongolia 3-0 in the final Group A fixture to register what will forever been known as India’s first ever victory in an international Futsal match.

From fatigue to victory

After having lost the first two matches, India’s head coach, Reza Kordi was clearly unhappy.

“First of all, I am so sorry about the result. All of us are unhappy. “In my opinion, we played very, very poorly. Physically, there was too much difference between India and Australia,” he had told the media in the aftermath of India’s elimination from the qualifiers.

According to Kordi, the squad’s Iranian head coach, the squad had gone into the Australia game under 48-hours of having played Kuwait.

“I think we also couldn’t recover properly after the match against Kuwait. Our players gave 100 per cent in that game, and after that, they needed good recovery and rest. Without that, this result happened. Physically, today, we were very bad.”

Momentous victory

Against Mongolia, however, the Futsal Tigers fired on all cylinders.

Seon D’ Souza opened the scoring in the 17th minute of the game and followed it up with another once in the 33rd minute.

Two minutes later, Anmol Adhikari found the back of the Mongolian net to seal the affair.

While this first ever futsal victory was a significant moment on its own, the fact that it came against a Mongolian side ranked 110th (25 places above India) with over 14 years of international futsal experience, made the victory all the more sweeter for India.

For the Indian futsal squad which only began competing on the international stage in 2023, this is indeed a moment to savor.