Jan. 18: India suffered a 1-4 thrashing at the hands of title contenders South Korea to end their Asian Cup campaign on a humiliating note here today. Already knocked out of the competition, India gave glimpses of their fighting abilities but that was not enough to avoid their third defeat in as many games.
Bob Houghton’s boys conceded a staggering 13 goals in the tournament while finding the nets just three times. Ji Dong Won scored a brace, Koo Ja Cheol and Son Heung Min found the target for South Korea. Striker Sunil Chhetri reduced the margin in the 12th minute in the last Group C match, which was played under cold conditions and incessant rain.
South Korea finished second in Group C behind Australia who finish on top after their 1-0 victory over Bahrain in another match played simultaneously at Al Sadd Stadium. India, the lowest ranked side in the tournament, were left to defend their citadel for most part with hardly any look at the South Korea goal.
Had not goalkeeper Subrata Paul made some fine saves, India would have gone down by a bigger margin.