The 10-man team led by Sunil Chhetri though continued to work hard and was almost rewarded with a goal around the half-hour mark. Manvir Singh, unfortunately, a tad slow in getting on to a low cross from the left.
Manvir was the at the end of another good piece of play when Chhetri found him in space after bringing down a long ball from the keeper, but Qatar managed to smother the attack.
Qatar, dominant in the contest, had decided to shoot from distance more often than not despite the numerical advantage, before a swift move found Abdelaziz Hatem, who’s left footed snap shot went through a crowd and found the back of the net 12 minutes from half-time.
Chhetri, who came back after having recovered from COVID-19, sat out the second half as Qatar toyed with India but could not find a way past Gurpreet and co for a second time.
The hosts hit the woodwork in the final minutes as well with the keeper well beaten but failed to make the score line more emphatic.
India, who had held Qatar to…