Ahead of the AFC Asian Cup third round qualifiers, India went down to Jordan with a scoreline of 2-0 as they were mostly defensive. The Blue Tigers missed a few players in Liston Colaco, Udanta Singh and Rahul Bhke for this clash in Qatar as they prepared for the qualifiers. The Indian national team head coach Igor Stimac shared that his team played well apart from some defensive errors which they will look to sort out in the training sessions.
He shared how scoring first in the game would have changed the result completely as the Indians did hold Jordan for a long time before they eventually scored two to win the friendly clash. Stimac after the game shared, “We were compact, and with good energy throughout the 90 minutes, putting Jordan under pressure in the second-half looking to score first.”
“The boys were good throughout most of the game, and I feel sorry that we couldn’t score first. That would have definitely helped,” the coach added. “There are some issues at the defending front which we faced, and need to be changed,” he also mentioned.
Indian played two matches against Bahrain and Belarus last month and then played some friendly matches against local teams and Indian Super League clubs to assess their players ahead of the qualifiers. Stimac feels that the final touches will be added during the training sessions as they will return to Kolkata to face Cambodia, Afghanistan and Hong Kong in their group for the Asian Cup qualifiers.
“We proceed back to Kolkata from Doha as per our schedule, where we would be training for a week prior to playing our first match in the Qualifiers. We intend to put in our final touches upon the restart of our training sessions, and will be working to bring back Liston, Udanta, and Bheke back to the squad,” Stimac informed.
The Finals round of the Asian Cup qualifiers will start from June 8 as the Blues Tigers will host Cambodia at the Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata. Followed by matches against Afghanistan on June 11 and lastly against Hong Kong on June 14. India’s main aim remains to qualify for the continental tournament. The six group winners will gain direct entry to the tournament while five best runners up will also gain the ticket to reach the tournament.
