{"id":46509,"date":"2026-03-31T21:10:45","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T15:40:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/?p=46509"},"modified":"2026-03-31T21:16:53","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T15:46:53","slug":"india-beat-hong-kong-2-1-as-ryan-williams-scores-on-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/football\/india-beat-hong-kong-2-1-as-ryan-williams-scores-on-debut\/","title":{"rendered":"India beat Hong Kong 2-1 as Ryan Williams scores on debut"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-start=\"121\" data-end=\"364\">The <span class=\"hover:entity-accent entity-underline inline cursor-pointer align-baseline\"><span class=\"whitespace-normal\">India national football team<\/span><\/span> signed off their <span class=\"hover:entity-accent entity-underline inline cursor-pointer align-baseline\"><span class=\"whitespace-normal\">AFC Asian Cup 2027 Qualifiers<\/span><\/span> campaign with a morale-boosting 2-1 victory over <span class=\"hover:entity-accent entity-underline inline cursor-pointer align-baseline\"><span class=\"whitespace-normal\">Hong Kong national football team<\/span><\/span> at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Kochi on March 31, 2026.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"366\" data-end=\"590\">Despite being already out of contention for qualification, India delivered an energetic performance to register their only win in the third round, ending the campaign on a positive note.<\/p>\n<h2 data-section-id=\"1fvtoml\" data-start=\"597\" data-end=\"633\">Match Summary: India vs Hong Kong<\/h2>\n<p data-start=\"635\" data-end=\"923\">India got off to a dream start as debutant <span class=\"hover:entity-accent entity-underline inline cursor-pointer align-baseline\"><span class=\"whitespace-normal\">Ryan Williams<\/span><\/span> found the back of the net in just the 4th minute, giving the hosts an early lead. The winger\u2019s impact was immediate, injecting pace and creativity into India\u2019s attack.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"925\" data-end=\"1164\">The hosts continued to dominate possession and doubled their advantage early in the second half when <span class=\"hover:entity-accent entity-underline inline cursor-pointer align-baseline\"><span class=\"whitespace-normal\">Akash Mishra<\/span><\/span> scored from a tight angle in the 50th minute, making it 2-0.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1166\" data-end=\"1431\">Hong Kong responded in the 65th minute through <span class=\"hover:entity-accent entity-underline inline cursor-pointer align-baseline\"><span class=\"whitespace-normal\">Everton Camargo<\/span><\/span>, who reduced the deficit and briefly put pressure on the Indian defence. However, India held firm in the closing stages to secure the win.<\/p>\n<h2 data-section-id=\"umz58d\" data-start=\"1793\" data-end=\"1825\">What This Win Means for India<\/h2>\n<p data-start=\"1827\" data-end=\"2025\">While India finished at the bottom of Group C, this victory was their <strong data-start=\"1897\" data-end=\"1943\">first win in the third round of qualifiers<\/strong>, offering a much-needed confidence boost.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"2027\" data-end=\"2159\">The result reflects improved attacking intent and individual performances, particularly from debutant Williams and full-back Mishra.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The India national football team signed off their AFC Asian Cup 2027 Qualifiers campaign with a morale-boosting 2-1 victory over\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":217,"featured_media":46510,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[194,5052,4057],"class_list":["post-46509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football","tag-hong-kong","tag-india","tag-top-stories"],"reading_time":"2 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/217"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46509"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46509\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46512,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46509\/revisions\/46512"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}