India U-23 were lucky that Dheeraj Singh had a really good day in between the sticks against Uzbekistan on Friday in their first AFC U-23 Championship qualifier. They lost 0-3 to the hosts but it could have been a whole lot worse.
After Pakistan withdrew from the tournament, the young Blues were left with two obstacles in Group F - Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. Derrick Pereira's team did not give a good account of their talent in their first match and the performance needs to improve if they are to come away with three points in their next game.