India made their first appearance at a FIFA event by qualifying directly as hosts of the FIFA U-17 World Cup which began on October 6. with games in New Delhi and Navi Mumbai. After 3 games, India finished with one goal scored, nine conceded, a goal difference of negative eight and zero points to their name to finish bottom of Group A. And now after the end of all group games, India has finished at the bottom, 24th, among all teams that qualified for the FIFA U-17 World Cup.
Placed in Group A, India played USA to begin their tournament at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in New Delhi. Despite drawing plenty of attendance including the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India's frailties on the big stage showed to go down 0-3. In the next game, India played Colombia and had a moment of euphoria with first ever goal for the country in a global football event coming off of Jeakson Singh's head. However, India's joy was shortlived as Colombia restored their lead and went on to win 2-1. In the last and final game, with a slender chance to qualify, India were comprehensively beaten by Ghana with the Africans far superior in attack and defence.
The group standings after all the matches reveal India and Korea DPR finished with no points. North Korea played three and lost three while conceding five goals and scoring none. This means their goal difference of negative five is better than India's placing them one better than the hosts.
The teams going through to the Round of 16 as top-two teams from all groups are: Ghana, Colombia, Paraguay, Mali, Iran, Germany, Brazil, Spain, France, Japan, England, Iraq and the top-four third placed teams are USA, Mexico, Niger, and Honduras. The round of 16 begin on October 16 and the quarterfinals on October 21-22 before the big finale at the Salt Lake Stadium on October 28.