AFC Asian Cup Qualifiers: Afghans strongest, says India head coach Igor Stimac

The Blue Tigers are preparing for their final round of qualifiers and they will take on Cambodia in Kolkata on June 8 before facing Afghanistan and Hong Kong on June 11 and 14 respectively.

Indian national football team head coach Igor Stimac; Credit: Twitter/@IndianFootball
By Sreejith C R | Jun 1, 2022 | 3 Min Read follow icon Follow Us

India national team head coach Igor stimac says Afghanistan could be their strongest opponents in their quest for AFC Asian Cup qualification. The Blue Tigers are in Kolkata, preparing for their third and final round of qualifiers at the Salt Lake stadium. The Sunil chhetri-led side will play Cambodia in their opening Group D fixture on June 8 before taking on Afghanistan and Hong Kong on June 11 and 14 respectively. Meanwhile Stimac’s side didn’t have the ideal preparations for the crucial upcoming fixtures, losing  all of their last three international friendlies. 

“Afghanistan are much physical and stronger. They have opened their borders for players to participate in foreign leagues. Those are not leagues of that high stature but they have good organised football throughout the year,” Stimac said during a one-hour-45-minute interaction with select media here on Tuesday. The Blue Tigers last played Afghanistan in the World Cup second round qualifiers at Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium in June. India took the lead through Ovays Azizi’s own goal but Hossein Zamani netted a late equaliser for the Afghans.

The group-winners and best five runner-ups will qualify for the finals

Stimac warned that Hong Kong would also be no pushovers. “They have changed rules and brought in foreigners. We will see how much they have improved. And talking about Cambodia, I think they would sit back. So that will be a different challenge,” he said. The third round of qualifiers is the final hurdle before making it to the Asian Cup 2023. In the round, 24 will compete for 11 available slots. The 24 teams are divided into six groups and they will play single round-robin matches in six centralised venues. The group winners and the best five runner-ups across all groups will progress to the Asian Cup finals.

Read more:

Stephen Constantine news: Former India head coach interviewed by ISL club Chennaiyin FC

Stimac criticised for India’s lacklustre performance

Meanwhile the Blue Tigers have been criticised for their lacklustre performance in their recent 2-0 loss to Jordan in a friendly, last Saturday. Stimac deployed a 5-3-2 defensive formation and the team looked clueless for most part of the game. The defence had a busy night, the midfield looked out of ideas while the forward’s never got the supply they would have desired for. Jordan netted twice in the final quarter through Abu Amarah and Abu Zrayq. When asked to look back on his three-year association with India, he said the national team under him did not fail.

We do stand a chance for the future: Stimac

“I would say we didn’t fail and we kept ourselves alive in difficult circumstances, while changing the team systematically. We do stand a chance for the future. We have to first make sure that we qualify for the Asian Cup and we are very close to doing that. At the end of that campaign, we will have a group of players with good age and enough experience. That’s what we are looking for. Did we expect more than what we did? Yes — but we didn’t fail,’’ said Stimac. “In the three years you are talking about, two we lost to the pandemic. We had to play our home matches abroad in a bio-bubble.”





Related Post

HIGHLIGHTS

Buzzwords