Riyadh, Dec 11: It has been a bittersweet start for India at the FIFAe World Cup 2024 featuring e-Football here at the SEF Arena in Saudi Arabia. The highlight of India’s performance in the competition has definitely been Danial Shakeel Patel, who secured himself a spot in the quarterfinals of the mobile e-Football competition with four wins, one draw, and two losses.
However, in the team competition FIFAe World Cup ft. eFootball Console, India failed to make it to the last four, as the eTigers finished eighth in a nine-team group, with six losses, one draw, and a solitary win.
Patel will now face the third team from Group B, Turkiye, represented by Yusa Haydar Gokulu, in the quarterfinals of the FIFAe World Cup ft. eFootball. Mobile on Wednesday, which will be played in a best-of-three format. The winner of this matchup will face an opponent from either Malaysia or Japan in the semifinals at midnight.
Debuting at the international arena, Patel took the world of mobile e-Football by storm on Day 1 of the competition with his explosive attacks that caught his opponents by surprise. While he began with a 7-0 drubbing of England in his first game, the 17-year-old came up against two traditional Asian powerhouses in e-sports in the next two match-ups Japan and Indonesia.
Patel made short work of Japan, a 4-1 victory, followed by a closely fought 3-2 win against Indonesia. He ended Day 1 with another convincing victory, a 5-0 result against Spain. Day 2, however, brought a different set of challenges for Patel. With 12 points in the bag, Patel produced a dominant display against yet another e-sports powerhouse, South Korea. Though the match may have ended in a stalemate, Patel maintained 81 percent possession throughout the game.
Things went downhill from thereon, however, as he lost his next match 1-5 against Costa Rica, followed by a 0-1 defeat against Brazil. Despite the two defeats on Day 2, Patel finished with 13 points from seven matches, which earned him the second spot in Group A, just one point behind Indonesia. Represented by Chinmay Sahoo, Saksham Rattan, and Ibrahim Gulrez, the Indian e-Football team finished eighth in Group A of the FIFAe World Cup 2024 featuring e-Football Console.
Day 1 was a case of a few near misses for the e-Tigers, who began with a 0-3 loss at the hands of South Korea, followed by a 1-2 defeat against Spain. They lost 0-1 against France in their last match. The trio had somewhat of a positive start on Day 2, a 1-1 draw against Poland, but soon succumbed to Malaysia, Netherlands, and Indonesia by margins of 2-4, 1-5, and 0-3, respectively.
However, the e-Tigers picked themselves up in the last game against England, winning 2-0 to condemn their opponents to the bottom spot in Group A.
