The Indian men’s football team is full of confidence after a stellar performance in their opening clash of the AFC Asian Cup Qualifiers. They overtook Cambodia on Thursday thanks to a brace from Sunil Chhetri to top the points table in Group D.
take india Afghanistan who lost 1-2 to Hong Kong in their opener at Vivekananda Yuva Bharati Krirangan on Saturday.
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Igor Stimac’s men would like to have another victory under their belt as the winners of only the six qualifying groups are assured of advancing to the finals and the qualifiers will include the five runners-up with the best record.
“The atmosphere in our dressing room is great and it is positive. It was positive before, but we didn’t have a win before the tournament. It was really important to start the tournament with a win,” Stimac said at the pre-match press conference on Friday.
“But obviously these three points and a win against Cambodia doesn’t make sense if we don’t get three points against Afghanistan. At this point in time, as we look at the job that we need to do here, so we We are here. We have to win against Afghanistan the same way.
India and Afghanistan have faced each other on nine occasions, with the Blue Tigers winning on four occasions and the Afghans winning three, as their last two meetings ended in a 1-1 draw. The first happened during FIFA World Cup and AFC Asian Cup joint qualifiers in Dushanbe. Their last meeting was in the second leg of the same competition in 2019 at the Jasim bin Hamad Stadium in Doha, Qatar.
Stimac certainly knows how challenging Afghanistan can be on his day.
“The match against Afghanistan is going to be very different (from the one against Cambodia), because you can see, if you watch the game, between Hong Kong and Afghanistan, there was a lot of quality movement, a lot of quality and quick passing. ‘Changing positions, there are many crosses in the box where the Afghanistan team is good in aerial doubles and they are very good in attacking,’ said Stimac.
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“And that’s what we need to handle. We need to be focused, disciplined and be as simple on the ball as in possession of the ball,” he said.
Goalkeeper Gurpreet Singh Sandhu is not one to shy away from a challenge and looks set to face Afghanistan’s ‘good quality players’.
“From my experience, Afghanistan has always been a tough side to play against. Certainly they have good quality players, experienced players who have played in Europe and who are playing in Europe and that is one of their strong points,” Gurpreet said on Friday.
“But we love good competition and it is always good to play against a team that wants to fight because we also love to fight. As the coach said, it makes sense to win the next game and move on because we are here because that’s what we want to be.
Afghanistan boss Anush Dastgir, however, didn’t say a word while talking about the importance of the struggle as they need a win for an AFC Asian Cup berth.
Dastagir said before the struggle, “Tomorrow’s game for us will be do or die, all or nothing.”
“We have seen India Against Cambodia and we are preparing ourselves for the match. We know India very well, the Indian team knows us very well so tomorrow will be a great game to play and to watch as well.
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