The 2018 Intercontinental Cup (known as the 2018 Hero Intercontinental Cup for sponsorship reasons) was a 4-nations football tournament held at the Mumbai Football Arena in the Indian city of Mumbai between 1 and 10 June 2018. The tournament was organized by the AIFF as part of the senior men's team's preparation for 2019 AFC Asian Cup. The tournament succeeded the Nehru Cup and developed post the Tri-Nation Series, where the then India head coach Stephen Constantine revealed that the intention was to hold a four-team tournament with India competing against teams from the Caribbean, Africa, and Asia. India won the tournament by defeating Kenya 2âÂÂ0 in the final on 10 June 2018.
The FIFA Rankings, as of 1 June 2018:
Initially, South Africa was announced to participate in the tournament but Kenya later replaced them when South Africa expressed its inability to participate. The other two nations participated in the tournament were Chinese Taipei from AFC region and New Zealand from the OFC region.
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After a poor attendance of 2,569 for the first match of the tournament, Indian captain Sunil Chhetri uploaded a video on his Twitter and Instagram accounts pleading for Indians to attend Indian football matches. Chhetri's plea was endorsed by other sports people, including Indian cricket captain Virat Kohli, cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar, and tennis player Sania Mirza. People responded to the plea by booking tickets for India's upcoming game against Kenya, and the game was sold out before the match day. The match was Chhetri's 100th cap for India in which he scored a brace, leading India to win 3âÂÂ0. The tweet was the most retweeted tweet in 2018, per Twitter India and was awarded The Golden Tweet.
Star Sports did broadcast for the 2018 Intercontinental Cup (India) on Star Sports HD2 & Star Sports 2. It was also streamed live on Hotstar and Jio TV.