The Hero Intercontinental Cup has returned to entertain fans for the first time since 2019 with six group-stage matches in as many days between four national teams.
Speaking before the start of the tournament, India head coach Igor Stimac said his side expected to become champions.
Stimac warned that the games would be a "great, great challenge", while India captain Sunil Chhetri spoke of the excitement among the squad. That anticipation has only been building throughout the week, with India set to contest the final.
Here's how the tournament works, the latest fixtures and results, and more from Stimac on his India team.
What is the Hero Intercontinental Cup?
The Intercontinental Cup is a four-nation competition organised by the All India Football Federation (AIFF). It's not to be confused with the now-defunct tournament of the same name, which was a precursor to the FIFA Club World Cup.
The third edition of the tournament follows its traditional round-robin group phase, with each team facing each other once in a format familiar to followers of the 2022 FIFA World Cup. The 2023 competition features India, Lebanon, Vanuatu and Mongolia.
The group games take place across matchdays every three days between June 9-15, 2023. The one-legged final then involves the top two teams in the table on June 18.
India were the winners of the inaugural tournament in Mumbai in 2018, beating Kenya in the final. New Zealand finished third ahead of Chinese Taipei.
A year later, North Korea became champions by beating Tajikistan 1-0. Syria came third, with India claiming a solitary point.
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The tournament is not related to the club competition of the same name organised between European football administrative body UEFA and their South American counterparts, CONMEBOL, between 1960 and 2004.
It takes its Hero prefix from the name of its lead sponsor, an Indian multinational motorcycle and scooter manufacturer.
Where is the Intercontinental Cup 2023?
India is again hosting the competition in 2023, using Bhubaneswar's Kalinga Stadium, in the east of the country, for all of the matches.
The 16,000-capacity setting was a host venue for the 2018 Hockey World Cup and is usually used by Odisha FC's Indian Super League and Indian Women's League teams.
Intercontinental Cup 2023: Fixtures, results, table
The tournament began with a 3-1 win for Lebanon over Vanuatu and a 2-0 victory for India against Mongolia, but the two pre-tournament favourites had trickier tests in their subsequent games.
Lebanon shared a goalless draw with Mongolia before India needed an 81st-minute goal from Chhetri — their 38-year-old cap centurion, and a top-scorer in 2018 and 2019 — to beat Vanuatu 1-0.
| Stage | Result | Highlights |
| Group matchday 1 | Lebanon 3-1 Vanuatu | Watch |
| Group matchday 1 | India 2-0 Mongolia | Watch |
| Group matchday 2 | Mongolia 0-0 Lebanon | Watch |
| Group matchday 2 | Vanuatu 0-1 India | Watch |
| Group matchday 3 | Vanuatu 1-0 Mongolia | Watch |
| Group matchday 3 | India 0-0 Lebanon | |
| Final | India vs Lebanon |
India went through to the final with seven points from a possible nine, while Lebanon joined them after finishing second on five points.
| Team | Played | Won | Drawn | Lost | For | Against | GD | Points |
| India - F | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | +3 | 7 |
| Lebanon - F | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 1 | +2 | 5 |
| Vanuatu | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 4 | -2 | 3 |
| Mongolia | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 3 | -3 | 1 |
F = advances to final
Intercontinental Cup 2023 team rankings
The hosts' fellow Asian Football Confederation sides, Lebanon (99th) and Mongolia (183rd), are the highest and lowest world-ranked teams in this year's competition.
India's ranking of 101st suggests the final will be evenly matched aginst Lebanon. Oceania Football Confederation team Vanuatu's results so far have been respectable in light of their position in 164th.
India results at the 2023 Hero Intercontinental Cup
Former Premier League defender and Croatia international Stimac is partly using the tournament to prepare his team for the AFC Asian Cup in Qatar in January.
Stimac made nine changes to his Blue Tigers starting side between their first two matches. The win over Vanuatu was their seventh successive home win and sixth clean sheet on that run, but their coach was not entirely satisfied.
"Many things were not as I wanted them to be and I will work on that," he said. "But many things were also beautiful, so we must enjoy that.
"I was not happy with parts of the game. We were sloppy and slow, especially with switching sides. That's why I went angry at the players.
"Some players need to speed up their game. We need to be tight on the players and they need to move the ball quicker to open the gaps and find areas where we could hurt the opponents."
Chhetri missed several chances. "You don't see him firing but then he pops up to score and win you the game," Stimac said of the former Kansas City Wizards and Sporting CP reserves forward. "So why question him?”
| Stage | Result | Scorers |
| Group matchday 1 | India 2-0 Mongolia | Sahal Abdul Samad, Lallianzuala Chhangte |
| Group matchday 2 | Vanuatu 0-1 India | Sunil Chhetri |
| Group matchday 3 | India 0-0 Lebanon | N/A |
| Final | India vs Lebanon |
