Kuwait vs India Prediction & Betting Tips - World Cup

Prediction published on 16/11/2023, 02:50  by Devesh Jaganath in World Cup Predictions

Group A in the second round of the AFC World Cup qualifiers will get underway, with Kuwait playing host to India on Thursday evening. This is a wide-open group that also features Afghanistan and Qatar. Kuwait claimed a 2-1 win over Syria in their last match back in October. That result followed back-to-back defeats against the UAE and Kyrgyz Republic. These sides have already done battle this year when they reached the final of the SAFF Championship back in July. In that match, Kuwait took the lead but were pegged back before halftime, and the match ended level. India claimed the title after a penalty shootout. Nevertheless, the hosts will still be confident heading into this match as they boast a solid home record. In their last six on home soil, Kuwait have won five and scored two or more goals in four of those victories. As a result, the bookmakers make them the favourites in this one. 

Meanwhile, after claiming the SAFF Championship earlier this year, India have struggled to keep the momentum going. They come into this encounter following a 4-2 defeat against Malaysia last week. That followed a very poor showing in the King’s Cup, where they lost back-to-back matches against Iraq on penalties and 1-0 to Lebanon a few days later. In fact, India have not won a game in regulation time since beating Nepal 2-0 back in June. While those stats may suggest that the visitors could struggle here, it is worth noting that India are ranked five places above Kuwait in the region and are 34 places ahead according to FIFA rankings. The visitors are the outsiders here, but an upset is certainly not off the cards.