The Blue Tigers will have to further improve their performance on Tuesday when they face a side that has scored nine times in their last encounter.

'India at 1956 Olympics Football' is Goal's latest endeavour to celebrate the nation's heroics in the beautiful game. 60 years ago in the Melbourne Olympics, India had finished fouth. In this seven article series, which will be published over the next two weeks, we bring you all the news, updates and analysis taking a stroll down the memory lane.

BY

ATANU MITRA (@Atanu00 on Twitter)

India, on Tuesday, will be playing the most important game in their football history so far when they take on the mighty Yugoslavia in the first semi-final at the Olympic Park Stadium. The winner of this fixture will go on to meet the victors of the second semi-final between U.S.S.R. and Bulgaria in the summit clash.

The first article of the series: Preview: India vs Australia: ‘Lucky’ Blue Tigers eye semi-final spot

Syed Abdul Rahim's team had defeated hosts Australia 4-2 in the quarter-finals, courtesy a fine hat-trick by Neville D'Souza, but unimpressive passing at the middle of the park pointed out the aspects where the veteran coach needs to work on before the semis. The team has been hit with injuries also, with two of the most important members of the first XI set to miss out the remainder of the competition.

Samar Banerjee, the skipper of the side suffered a cramp in the closing stages of the last match and had to be taken off. He has failed to recover in time for this match while the young goalkeeper Peter Thangaraj has had the same fate, having picked up a foot injury. In Thangaraj's absence, 22-year old goalkeeper S. Narayan - who had played an instrumental role in Bombay's journey to the Santosh Trophy final earlier this year - will start under the bar. On the other hand, it will be interesting to see whether Rahim chooses Hyderabad's Tulsidas Balaram ahead of Bengali forward Krishna Pal to replace Banerjee.

Apart from these two changes, it's expected to be the same starting line-up in the second match of the journey. This will be a brilliant stage for the Asian team to plot a revenge, having lost 10-1 to the same opponents in the Helsinki Olympics four years ago, which remains the worst ever defeat in the short history of the game in the country that earned independence less than a decade ago.

The second article of the series: Report: Australia 2-4 India: Neville D’Souza’s hat-trick takes Rahim’s team to the semi-finals

India's record against the East Asian nations has been poor in the limited face-offs, which was evident very recently when they were playing exhibition matches against a touring USSR side. A win away from winning an Olympic medal, D'Souza and co. will be eager to change that trend.

On the other hand, Yugoslavia had finished as silver-medalists in the last two editions of the Olympics and will be aiming to finish at the top of the podium this time around. They steamrolled USA 9-1 in the quarter-final with Sava Antic, Zlatko Papec, Muhamed Mujic and Todor Veselinovic all scoring. Todor, who plays for FC Vojvodina, was the most clinical of them all and scored a hat-trick as well. The last time the two teams had met, FK Partizan striker Branko Zebec had scored five times and the Indian defense will have to remain on their toes to ensure that they don't face a similar humiliation this time around.

With a place in the final up for grabs, an exciting encounter is in the offing but it will not be unfair to say that India will start as massive underdogs in the contest.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:

Times of India, Nation at Play (by Ronojoy Sen), Sydney Morning Herald, The Socceroos and Their Opponents (by Laurie Schwab), Olympics: The India Story (by Boria Majumder and Nalin Mehta), Official Report of 1956 Olympics.