India vs Pakistan in football: A rather one-sided rivalry in numbers
India and Pakistan have met each other 29 times on a football field. The Indian men’s football team has dominated the fixture with 16 wins and losing on just four occasions.
Football
Over the years, the India vs Pakistan rivalry in sports has been a historic one, be it in cricket or field hockey. However, when it comes to football, encounters between the two teams have been limited.
India and Pakistan have played each other in 29 internationals till date. The Indian men’s football team has dominated the head-to-head record, winning 16 of these fixtures while losing only four. The remaining nine matches ended as draws.
The two teams first met on March 23, 1952, during the Colombo Cup, an Asian quadrangular tournament that also included Burma and Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). The first India vs Pakistan football match ended in a goalless draw.
India, however, drew first blood in the 1953 Colombo Cup at the Aung San Stadium in Myanmar with a 1-0 win courtesy of a Neville D'Souza goal.
Meanwhile, the Pakistan men’s football team recorded its first win over India during the 1959 Asia Cup with Abdullah netting the winner. It was the sixth match between the two sides.
The highest-scoring game between the two teams came during a group game at the 1999 SAF Games in Kathmandu, Nepal. India won 5-2 as IM Vijayan scored a hat-trick while Jules Alberto and Shabbir Pasha netted a goal each. Haroon Yusuf and Gohar Zaman scored for Pakistan.
The biggest victory of the India vs Pakistan football rivalry belongs to Team India, courtesy of a 4-0 win in a SAFF Championship 2023 fixture. Indian football team captain Sunil Chhetri led from the front with a hat-trick.
With the three goals, Chhetri became the third Indian to register a hat-trick against Pakistan after Puran Bahadur (1954 Colombo Cup) and IM Vijayan (1999 SAF Games).
Pakistan’s biggest win was in a friendly in Lahore in 2005. Mohammed Essa, Tanvir Ahmed and Arif Mehmood scored to give the home team a 3-0 victory.
India and Pakistan have met each other the most number of times in the SAFF Championship. The first match between the two in 1993 (then known as the SAARC Cup) ended in a 1-1 draw, with strikes from Muhammad Nauman Khan and IM Vijayan holding the two sides to a deadlock.
It was the only draw between the two teams in the SAFF Championship. India won seven games, including two semi-finals. Pakistan won just one match, in a group stage game during the 2003 edition, courtesy of a Sarfraz Rasool goal.