Australia achieved a deserved victory over India 2-0, on Saturday, in the first round of the second group competitions of the Asian Football Cup in Qatar.
At the Ahmed Bin Ali World Cup Stadium, in front of a crowd of 36,000, most of whom supported the Indian team, Jackson Irvine (50) and Jordan Buss (73) scored the two goals.
The match witnessed a precedent in the Asian Cup finals because Japanese referee Yoshimi Yamashita was the first woman to officiate a match in the continental finals.
The group includes Syria and Uzbekistan, who will meet later at Jassim bin Hamad Stadium.
Australia, champions in 2015 when they hosted the finals, played the match with a squad that more than half of its members participated in the match against Argentina in the 16-finals of the World Cup in Qatar in late 2022, most notably its captain Matt Ryan, who recovered from a fracture in his cheek.
Despite Australia's control of the game, the first real opportunity was for India through its veteran striker Sunil Chhetri (39 years old), who headed a swimming ball, but it came outside the three posts (16).
It is noteworthy that Chhetri, the top scorer in the Indian national team, is the only player remaining from the current squad that previously faced Australia in the 2011 edition in Qatar as well (0-4).
Australia responded with an opportunity through Connor Metcalfe that did not work (21), then Martin Boyle shot a ball on the volley from inside the area that went over the crossbar (31).
The Australian team put pressure in the last quarter of an hour but was unable to find the way towards India's goal thanks to its organized defense.
Australia continued its pressure and succeeded in opening the scoring through Jackson Irvine, who took advantage of a fatal error by Indian goalkeeper Gurpreet Singh Sandhu to follow it into an empty net from inside the area (50).
Substitutes Riley Magri and Jordan Boss exchanged the ball, and the latter easily added the second goal for Australia at the gate (73), one minute after he came on as a substitute.