Men: Captain Talismanic Sunil Chhetri on Saturday said that though “a little superiority” India enjoyed in South Asian countries, all the opponents in the ongoing Saffal Championship will be difficult and his team will play every match like “war to fight”.
India, who has won a regional football tournament seven times from 12 editions, open their campaign against Bangladesh on Monday.
The five team tournaments began on Friday with Nepal and Bangladesh beat Maldives and Sri Lanka with identical 1-0 margins.
“All matches will be difficult.
Despite the few advantages we have, every match will be like a war to fight.
We have to fight until the last minute.
We cannot play 90 percent,” Chhetri said during virtual.
Press conference.
However, the captain admitted that his team had not been in two international matches against Nepal in Kathmandu last month.
They pulled one and won the others.
“If we talk about two matches against Nepal, we have an area to improve and the head coach has said that to us about it.
We can do better.” Bangladesh has changed their coach (after World Cup qualification) but they are very difficult side.
In two matches we played against Bangladesh in the last three-four months, it was very difficult.
All teams in the region have increased.
“So, we want to take one match at a time.
We are currently thinking about Bangladesh’s match, we don’t think of the final.” Head coach Igor Stimac said the Saffal Championship, which ended on October 16, would be the last chance for players to play international matches before the start of the 2023 third round of the AFC of the Asian Cup Cup in February next year.
“We cannot have the right camp because of the situation.
AFC and SAFF have been forced to arrange tournaments outside the FIFA window (due to pandemic) and we must have an understanding of ISL clubs to release players outside the window.
FIFA windows like they also want Do it well.
“We said our national team would give up in November and ISL clubs to release players in September and October.
We thank ISL clubs (because they released the players for the Saffal Championship).
“Stimac said this was an advantage for the team that had players from Bengaluru FC and ATK Mohun Chart who recently played here during the AFC Cup.” After playing in the AFC Cup.
“After playing in the AFC Cup, BFC and MB ATK players also have pre-season, so it is a favorite advantage while most of the other ISL sides don’t have pre-season.
So we have to decide how many minutes we have to give to the players for 90 minutes .
“But we’re in a favorite position to win the tournament and we will justify itself.” Stimac also spoke about the dangers of players injured while practicing in tone artificial in men, while Chhetri said that the reason was not “free-flowing”.
“We are here Four days before the first match.
Different training land here – artificial and natural tones.
Injuries can occur in changes to this pitch, we must be careful.
We were on an island and had to come to the man with a speedboat and it made it more difficult.
“In Udanta returned to the team after skipping the match against Nepal, Stric said,” We have seen Udanta different in the AFC Cup for Bengaluru FC, in a natural position where he did not play in the past.
He returned to the best.
He returned to the best.
He returned to the best.
“” That’s what we want to see from Udanta, immediately striking at full speed, carry out opportunities and make opportunities.
Every player will get a chance here.
“We need to set it in a way that is disciplined and return quickly after losing the ball.” Stracac said 2022 World Cup qualifiers that matched Oman and Asia Qatar champions were the best match after he took over the team in mid-2019 .
“In the past two years, we strive to start thinking only about ourselves, not to change our game with respect to our opponents.”
Every SaffF championship match is ‘war to fight for’: Sunil Chhetri
