Asian Cup: Australia and Thailand get upset on day 1

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Defending champions Australia made a nightmarish start to their AFC Asian Cup campaign as they were humbled by Jordan's solitary goal in their opening game of the continental tournament in Al Ain, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Sunday night.

Graham Arnold's Socceroos, who won the title on home soil four years ago, reigned supreme throughout the game against their unfancied rivals but the all-important equalizer to Jordan's Anas Bani Yaseen's 26th-minute header remained elusive in the Group B clash at Hazza bin Zayed Stadium.

A shell-shocked Arnold reacted after the match, “It was one of those days. A frustrating day and the ball didn't seem to bounce. But you've got to give full credit to Jordan and they've shown that they had a lot of fight.”

His Jordanian counterpart Vital Borkelmans said, “First of all, I want to say thank you to my players, they made a very good job. We trained on tactical things, I must say thank you to my players as they have done everything I asked and they believed in the chances that we can do.”

“When we had the corners or free kicks, we trained a lot on these and today they made a lot of performance. Also as I said many times to paper or television, we will come physical and mental today and they let me see how strong our guys are,” he added.

India's Jeje Lalpekhlua (L) celebrates his goal during his team's thrashing of Thailand in AFC Asian Cup in Al Ain, the United Arab Emirates, January 6, 2019. /VCG Photo

The upset win helped the Jordanians go atop the points table in Group B after Syria played a goalless draw against a 10-men Palestine in the other opening round fixture of the day. The Palestinians held on for a point after Mohammed Saleh was sent off in the 69th minute in their opening game at the Sharjah Stadium stadium in Sharjah.

Sunday's third game saw another historic result as India scripted a morale-boosting 4-1 win over a hapless Thailand. Stephen Constantine's upbeat Indian side came out firing on all cylinders from the word go and veteran striker Sunil Chhetri notched up a brace to lead his country to their first victory at the tournament in 55 years. This was also India's first-ever win against Thailand in 33 years.

Chhetri, who is currently second in the international goal-scoring list among all the active players after Cristiano Ronaldo and ahead of Lionel Messi, drew first blood from the penalty spot before Teerasil Dangda leveled the score in the Al-Nahyan Stadium in Abu Dhabi. The 34-year-old from Delhi clinched the lead once again with a clinical finish early in the second half.

Subsequently, the Indian dominance saw Anirudh Thapa and Jeje Lalpekhlua adding to the scoreline as the Blue Brigade registered their first win at the Asian Cup since defeating Hong Kong way back in 1964.

Despite his side's emphatic win, a cautious Constantine mentioned, “We try to win every match that we play in. We don't go into a match expecting to win 4-1 or 5-1. However, we are not trying to get carried away with the emotion.”

India's veteran striker Sunil (R) overtakes Lionel Messi to become the second highest-scoring active international player by netting two goals in their AFC Asian Cup game against Thailand in Al Ain, the United Arab Emirates, January 6, 2019. /VCG Photo

“We still have two games left and we still need another two points to qualify from the group stages. After we have qualified, we can get a little bit excited but our primary job is still to qualify out of the group stages,” he added.

India's goal-scoring hero Chhetri also chose to walk backstage as he stated, “I can think about my goals some ten years later. At the moment, we need to focus. The goals need to come and it just doesn't matter who scores.”

The Indians are currently leading the early standings in Group A ahead of hosts the UAE and Bahrain, who drew 1-1 on Saturday evening.