It was not just a trophy that Igor Stimac and his men brought the country when they followed up their Tri Nation Cup win in March with the Intercontinental Cup on Sunday. Their 2-0 win over higher-ranked Lebanon in the final in Bhubaneswar also ensured a climb back into the top 100 of FIFA rankings and added a leaf in the record books as their sixth consecutive clean-sheet broke a record set by the national team in 1951-52, under the guidance of Syed Abdul Rahim.
Sunil Chhetri had scored a brace when India won by the Intercontinental Cup in 2018 and the skipper broke the deadlock at Kalinga Stadium in the 46th minute only for Player-of-the-Match Lallianzuala Chhangte, who had provided the assist for the first, to put the game beyond Lebanon with a 66th-minute strike.
