2 min readMay 26, 2026 11:50 PM IST
The Indian men’s national team will play two friendly matches against Tajikistan away from home on June 5 and 9 in Hisor during the FIFA international match window, the All India Football Federation (AIFF) said on Tuesday. The matches will happen in Hisor, a city 15km west of national capital Dushanbe where India had played in the Central Asian Football Association (CAFA) Nations Cup last year.
India are currently in London to participate in the Unity Cup 2026. India will be facing Jamaica on Wednesday. Based on the result of the match, India will either play the final or the third-place playoff against either Nigeria or Zimbabwe. With India failing to qualify for the 2027 Asian Cup, they will be making do with playing friendly matches until the start of the next tournament cycle next year.
India will leave for Tajikistan from London on May 31. Both matches will take place at the Hisor Central Stadium, which was also India’s venue for the CAFA Nations Cup.
The tournament was India’s first under current head coach Khalid Jamil and they started off with a surprise 2-1 win over Tajikistan, who are currently ranked 33 places above India in the FIFA standings for international football. They went on to stage another surprise by finishing third despite being the second lowest ranked team in the tournament. India went past the group stage with a win, a draw and a defeat. They qualified for the third-place playoff in which the beat Oman in a tense penalty shootout 3-2 after the match itself ended 1-1 after extra time.
However, any positivity from the result was short-lived as India then lost 1-2 to Singapore in Goa in a decisive AFC Asian Cup qualifier, which confirmed their failure to qualify for the continental tournament. They had qualified for the last two editions of the tournament, making the first time in 10 years that India won’t be appearing at the Asian Cup.
© IE Online Media Services Pvt Ltd
