The Indian football team's hopes of winning the Intercontinental Cup title for the third time were dashed as it lost to Syria 0-3 in the last league match of the three-nation tournament in Hyderabad on Monday.
Mahmoud Al Aswad and Daleho Mohsen Irandust scored for Syria in the seventh and 77th minutes to break the hearts of the home crowd at the GMC Balayogi Athletics Stadium.
Pablo Sabbag's injury time strike was a mere underlining of Syria's dominance.
This result marks a disappointing start to Manolo Marquez's stint as India head coach. He was appointed to the helm of affairs in July after the sacking of Igor Stimac.
The tournament is played in a round-robin format and the highest-ranked team after the league stage wins the tournament.
Syria had beaten Mauritius 2-0 in their opening match and thus ended the round-robin league with six points. India and Mauritius finished the tournament on one point each after playing out a goalless draw on September 3.
India had won the title in 2018 and 2023, while it was the first trophy for Syria who had finished third in 2019.
This was the first time Syria won a title on Indian soil. The West Asian country has a long history of playing tournaments in India, but a title has eluded them before Monday.
Syria lost back-to-back Nehru Cup finals to India in 2007 and 2009 before finishing fourth in 2012.
On their last trip to India in the 2019 Intercontinental Cup, Syria finished in third place. In that tournament, the two teams played out a 1-1 draw.
In the last meeting between the two teams, Syria had beaten India 1-0 in the Asian Cup in Qatar in January, this year.
India made a horrendous start in the match as they conceded a goal in the seventh minute. After a brilliant attack down the right flank, Al Aswad's shot went in after a deflection from an Indian defender.
Three minutes later, Alaa Aldin Yasin Dali's shot from a distance rattled the crossbar and India escaped from conceding their second goal.
The West Asians were in command in the first half as Gurpreet Singh Sandhu was called into action to thwart another goal-bound move from the Syrians in the 35th minute as he kept out an attempt from Dali again off a corner.
But towards the end of the first half, India began to gain a foothold in the contest and made some fine attacking moves but failed to get the desired result.
India were definitely the better side in the second half but still conceded two more goals without opening account for themselves. The Indian forwards had at least a couple of chances in the second 45 minutes but they failed to convert them.
India head coach Manolo replaced Nikhil Poojary and Suresh Singh with Asish Rai and Apuia in the second half, and it seemed the move was going to pay dividends.
In the 55th minute, Sahal Abdul Samad made a fine run into the Syrian defence and sent a pass on to Lallianzuala Chhangte, whose shot was, however, parried away by the Syrian keeper.
Five minutes later, it was again the same combination of Samad and Chhangte to rattle the Syrian defence but the latter's shot was blocked by a defender.
But against the run of play, Syria doubled their lead in the 77th minute as Daleho Mohsen foxed Anwar Ali at the right edge of the box before slipping the ball past Gurpreet Singh who could have done better under the bar.
Three minutes from regulation time, substitute Edmund Lalrindika sent a thunderous shot from inside the Syrian box but the keeper made a fine save, palming the ball away at the last minute for a corner.
Five minutes were added as stoppage time and Liston Colaco's fine long range effort beat the Syrian goalkeeper but the ball came back into play after thudding the horizontal.
A few seconds after that, Pablo David Sabbag tapped in the third goal for Syria to put the match to bed.
