India coach Stimac rues 'silly mistakes' in second defeat

Igor Stimac rued his India team's "silly mistakes" after they fell to a second straight defeat at the Asian Cup on Thursday, losing 3-0 to Uzbekistan.

The result puts Uzbekistan in a strong position to qualify along with Australia from Group B with one round of matches to go.

India, beaten 2-0 by Australia in their opening match, sit bottom of the group with zero points and no goals.

"If we take the goals out of the game -- which were caused by silly mistakes -- I could be happy with the performance," India coach Stimac said.

The Uzbeks were ahead within five minutes in Doha, through an Abbosbek Fayzullaev header, the 20-year-old CSKA Moscow winger nodding in Otabek Shukurov's looping header.

Chaotic Indian defending led to the second 14 minutes later, a sliding Sandesh Jhingan chipping the ball against his own bar for Igor Sergeev to score on the rebound.

Ranked 102nd in the world to Uzbekistan's 68, India had their moments but were mostly limited to speculative crosses in front of more than 38,000 people at the Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium.

Their hopes of an unlikely comeback were extinguished during first-half stoppage time, Sherzod Nasrullaev exploiting some statuesque defending to notch a third.

Uzbekistan took their foot off the gas in the second half, allowing India repeated attempts to supply Sunil Chhetri, but the veteran striker toiled to no avail and was subbed off with 20 minutes remaining.

Fayzullaev, named player of the tournament as Uzbekistan won the under-20s Asian Cup on home soil last year, said they had nothing to fear against Australia in their final group game.

The Socceroos are already into the last 16 thanks to a 1-0 win over Syria.

"Australia may be favourites, but this game is 11 versus 11," he said.

"I don't think we are an inferior team to Australia because I have full confidence in our guys."