Five weird fixtures taking place during the international break, including Belarus vs India

Seb Sternik
24 March 2022

Sunil Chhetri (3rd L) of India celebrates after scoring the opening goal during the second round Group E match

Forget your World Cup qualifiers and your play-off games, it’s time to get stuck into some proper international football.

We could spend time putting together a serious article, evaluating all the important stats ahead of the World Cup qualifiers. But let's be honest, apart from the supporters of the teams involved, no one else really cares.

Instead, Planet Sport has taken a dive into the rabbit hole of international friendlies, and picked out five of the weirdest games on offer.

Uganda vs Tajikistan

There's no better way to kick off our list than with this encounter between Uganda and Tajikistan - two nations separated by almost 6,000km.

The two teams will clash in the city of Namangan (Uzbekistan) in what should be a close encounter, considering Uganda are currently ranked 84th by FIFA, while their opponents are 115th.

Despite those numbers, it's Tajikistan who have enjoyed better results over the past year, winning three of their last seven and losing twice.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about this fixture is that both the managers are from the Balkans. Tajikistan are managed by Croatia's Petar Segrt, while Uganda's boss is Serbian Milutin Sredojevic.

Liechtenstein vs Cape Verde

At first sight, you might wonder why a relatively successful African team like Cape Verde is taking on one of the worst sides in world football, Liechtenstein.

Our first inkling was that the Blue Sharks just wanted an excuse to travel to the central European country in order to complete the Liechtenstein trail - a 75km hike from one side of the small nation to the other.

However, with the fixture taking place just outside the city of Murcia (Spain), that can't be it.

Whatever the reason, Cape Verde are expected to cruise to victory, considering they are 118 places above their opponents in the FIFA rankings. What's more, Liechtenstein have lost 11 of their last 12 games, with a 1-1 draw against Armenia in September their only bright spot.

Andorra vs Saint Kitts and Nevis

Europe meets the Caribbean on Friday, March 25 as Andorra welcome Saint Kitts and Nevis to the Estadi Nacional.

Interestingly, the visitors will be without some of their best players, as the likes of Stoke City's Romaine Sawyers and Livingston's Harry Panayiotou were not selected.

Perhaps that has something to do with the national team's recent deal with La Liga club Cadiz. The agreement between the two parties will see young players from St Kitts and Nevis get professional opportunities at the club.

Another point of note is the pre-match quote from the Sugar Boyz head coach Austin Dico Huggins who said: "We wanna ensure that we are strong defensively because if you can score two goals and can't defend two goals then, you will lose." Has he been speaking with Michael Owen?

Belarus vs India

Belarus were punished for Russia's invasion of Ukraine by being excluded from major sporting events. Consequently, their list of possible opponents in international friendlies has also dwindled.

Despite this, one nation which has accepted the challenge is India.

Both nations are close neighbours in the FIFA rankings, with the Asian outfit sitting 104th and Belarus 94th.

Interestingly, India are coming into this game having lost just one of their last 10 international outings. Belarus, in contrast, have lost eight from their last nine.

Those stats don't mean much when you take into account context and level of opposition. Nevertheless, we're still pretty fascinated to see how this match will pan out.

Cape Verde vs San Marino

Cape Verde will stay in Spain for their second match of their European tour against San Marino. As it turns out, this will be a very special occasion for the European side.

Before you start rolling your eyes, allow me to explain.

One thing we certainly didn't expect to see when researching this game, is the fact that San Marino will use this fixture as a launching pad from their new OTT platform.

Yes, that's right. Fans of the world's worst football team will now be able to stream their games via a dedicated online platform. In order to learn more about it, we set up an account, although there's nothing on the platform except for a demo video which costs one Euro to unlock. With that in mind, it will be interesting how much they charge for the classic fixture against Cape Verde.

But if that wasn't enough to satisfy your weird football knowledge needs, this will be San Marino's first official game against a non-European country.

The key word there is 'official' so don't you dare mention the 1987 Mediterranean Games.