India underdogs in final match against Iraq

Chennai, May 15 (UNI) India will round off their football qualifying matches for the 2008 Beijing games against 'powerful' Iraq at the Nehru stadium here tomorrow.

While the match is inconsequential for India, Iraq, as Vice- President of her Football Federation Basim Hameed Zghair said would be looking for a win eventhough they have made it to the final round of the qualifying matches along with DPR Korea.

India had lost to Iraq 0-3 in the away match played at Jordan before they lost to DPR Korea in the home match here last month.

In fact, India is going through a poor run. They lost to Thailand 0-1 and DPR Korea 0-2 on home turf too, after losing the away matches. India qualified for the second stage of the tournament after a gap of eight years, defeating Myanmar in the preliminary competition. But they failed to live up to it in the second round matches. It was only againt DPR Korea here that they put up a better fight, but failed to score.

While DPR Korea have ten points, Iraq have eight. A win here against India would give Iraq a psychological advantage against the Koreans, moving to 11 points, said Zghair. The Iraqi team has been practising for the contest to get used to the conditions here since last Sunday morning.

The teams were scheduled to practice at the Nehru stadium later in the evening today.

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