India go down 0-4 to Brazil in IBSA World Grand Prix Tournament

India's blind football team put up a brave display against Brazil in the IBSA Blind Football World Grand Prix in Puebla, Mexico on Tuesday night. They held out for a brave defensive performance in the first half to go into the interval at 0-1 and eventually lost 0-4.

India will be playing some of the top ranked nations over the course of this tournament in Mexico from 28 July to 8 August. At stake is a place in next year's Blind Football World Cup. This high level of competition will also be of invaluable service as India prepares to host the Asian Championships at Kochi in November this year.

Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica, India and Mexico are the teams in this tournament. Japan were supposed to travel as well, but they backed out at the last moment.

India will next face Costa Rica on Thursday, before facing Argentina and Mexico.

Top two teams finishing after the group matches will play the final and the next best teams will play for the 3rd/4th place on the same day.

The previous three editions of this tournament took place in Tokyo. Argentina won all the three previous editions in 2018, 2019 and 2021.

This is for the first time that the Sports Authority of India ( SAI) and the Paralympic Committee of India are supporting the team to go on this tour.