'They Have Really Good Players': Diego Forlan Admits India's Relentless Press Caught Uruguay Off Guard In 6-1 Defeat

The floodlights at Salt Lake Stadium had barely settled into the cold Kolkata night when the sky itself intervened. A lightning strike halted play in the first half, sending players off and leaving 6 October hanging in an uneasy pause.

When football resumed, the scoreboard eventually settled on 1-6 in Uruguay's favour: Darwin Nunez, Maxi Araujo (twice), Rodrigo Zalazar, Juan Sanabria and Rodrigo Aguirre on one side, a single Anirudh Thapa strike on the other. The numbers tell one story. The first half hour told another.

It was the closing act of the biggest stretch of home football India has ever staged. Three World Cup nations (Panama, Brazil and Uruguay) arrived within one international window, and the last two played in Kolkata just three days apart. This is a city that last hosted a global name in 2011, when Messi's Argentina visited.

It was the closing act of the biggest stretch of home football India has ever staged. Three World Cup nations (Panama, Brazil and Uruguay) arrived within one international window, and the last two played in Kolkata just three days apart. This is a city that last hosted a global name in 2011, when Messi's Argentina visited.

What defined those nights was Khalid Jamil's refusal to flinch. Against Panama, Brazil and Uruguay alike, India played brave football. The fullbacks pushed high and overlapped, with Ashique Kuruniyan's work on the left troubling Nahitan Nandez enough to put the Uruguayan in the referee's book.

Numbers were committed forward the moment the ball was won, and the team pressed as one unit off the ball. It is a high-risk approach against sides who live on the counter-attack, and Uruguay punished it. But even in the Brazil game, India were anything but passive, completing 13 dribbles to Brazil's three and making 11 interceptions to their five.

The ten goals Brazil and Uruguay scored between them (4-0 and 6-1) hide how closely India stayed in touch for long stretches. On paper the gaps were vast: India 137th, Brazil fifth or sixth depending on the source, Uruguay 20th, and Panama, whom India held to a 1-1 draw in Bengaluru, 44th.

On the pitch, India looked like a side that belonged in the contest. They won duels, created chances and made Ancelotti's side work. The Brazil coach himself praised their organisation in defence and on the counter.

That bravery produced a goal India will remember. In the 22nd minute, Ryan Williams carried the ball through the middle and let fly from the edge of the box. Goalkeeper Thiago Cardozo could only parry, and the ball fell straight to the onrushing Thapa, who finished from close range.

It was a goal built on intent: a midfielder driving at a world-class defence, and runners arriving in the box to feast on the rebound. It levelled the game after Nunez had put Uruguay ahead from the penalty spot, and India had earned it.

The reason was the press. India started on the front foot, hounding Uruguay's back line and forcing errors out of a defence used to calm build-up play. Even after conceding, they kept pushing high, snapping at defenders and goalkeeper and winning the ball in dangerous areas. It would have felt unthinkable not long ago: an Indian side pressing opponents from a World Cup squad into mistakes in their own third.

Forlan Praises India's Press

Uruguay coach Diego Forlan, who took over from Marcelo Bielsa, noticed. Asked afterwards by Outlook India about the way India's press had caught his defenders out while building from the back, he was candid.

"No, yeah, we knew that they could press. They have really good players at the beginning. Our transition and passing was a little bit slow, so India took profit of that. And yeah, it was tough then. Then we tried to fix that and at the end we controlled that pressing really well."

That last sentence carries the verdict of the night. Uruguay solved the problem and then used their quality to run away with the game in the second half, with Araujo, Zalazar, Sanabria and Aguirre exploiting the space India left behind.

But the opposition coach had acknowledged what the scoreboard could not: for a spell in Kolkata, a side ranked 137th had forced one of the world's best to adjust. The task now is to keep that courage and add the composure to last 90 minutes.