India, Sept. 24 -- India suffered a cruel twist of fate on Wednesday in Aichi-Nagoya after Mongolia's no-show in a decisive group-stage match saw the eFootball team of Danial Patel and Chinmay Sahoo get eliminated, ending their medal hopes at the 2026 Asian Games.

Patel and Sahoo had begun their campaign with a 0-0 draw against Uzbekistan, who then beat Mongolia 6-3 and 12-0 across the mobile and console games, leaving them with a substantial positive goal difference of +15.

Uzbekistan's results meant India needed a strong result against Mongolia to progress to the knockouts and keep their medal hopes alive. But the Mongolian team failed to report within the stipulated check-in time, arriving three minutes late and resulting in a forfei...