Bhubaneswar announced as the host city for the Intercontinental Cup as India gears up to face Mongolia, Vanuatu and Lebanon

The All India Football Federation (AIFF) have announced the upcoming Intercontinental Cup which will be held in June. They also revealed the teams and Bhubaneshwar as the venue for the tournament.

The tournament will be played in the FIFA International break window from June 9 to 18. Apart from India, the other teams are Lebanon, Vanuatu and Mongolia.

This will be the third investment of the Intercontinental Cup after the last two editions hosted in Mumbai in 2018 and Ahmedabad in 2019. The Indian football team will look to get every match they get ahead of the Asian Cup which will be held next year in January.

The Blue Tigers recently featured in the Tri-nation tournament in Imphal and now they will shift their focus to the Intercontinental Cup in Odisha.The General Secretary Dr. Shaji Prabhakaran welcomes Odisha with open arms. “Imphal had experienced the joy of International football in March, and now it’s Bhubaneswar’s turn to join the country’s growing map of international venues for men’s football,” he stated.

“Bhubaneswar was one of the venues of the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup, and with that, we have seen some excellent infrastructure being developed by the Government of Odisha,” he continued.
The Indian national team were greeted with a lot of cheer and enthusiasm in Manipur and Prabhakaran expects the same for Odisha, a city that has hosted many world-class sporting events in recent years.
“If you look at what happened in Manipur, it was held for the first time, and that way we are confident that fans in Odisha will display equal enthusiasm for the event,” Dr Prabhakaran added. “We are also hopeful that Odisha football will benefit greatly from hosting the Hero Intercontinental Cup.”
Igor Stimac’s men are on a five-match unbeaten run at home. The streak started back in June 2022 with a 2-0 win over Cambodia during the AFC Cup qualifiers round 3 in Kolkata. They won back-to-back matches against Cambodia, Afghanistan (2-1) and Hong Kong (4-0). The team then featured in the Tri nation cup and defeated Myanmar 1-0 and followed it up with a 2-0 win over the Kyrgyz Republic.
India have featured six times against Lebanon in the past and have a very poor record against them. The Blue Tigers have beaten them only once, that too back in 1977 in the President’s Cup. They have managed two draws and have suffered three defeats. Their last meeting was back in 2009 when they lost 1-0 against Lebanon.
India will play Mongolia and Vanuatu for the first time in their footbal