Indian team will fly to Maldives on Tuesday to play their first match of the 2021 SAFF championship against Bangladesh on October 4.
Follow Us
Indian men’s senior national team head coach Igor Stimac has announced a 23-man squad for the upcoming SAFF Championship in Maldives. The tournament will kick-off on October 1 while India’s first match is against Bangladesh on October 4 and the final is slated to be on October 16. The players and the support staff will assemble in Bengaluru on Monday and will fly out to Maldives the next day. Meanwhile, Stimac and other technical staff will join the squad directly in Maldives on the same day.
Besides India, the other teams in the competition are – Nepal, Bangladesh, Maldives and Sri Lanka. The tournament is scheduled in a round-robin format with each team playing each other once with the top two teams going through to the final.
“We are all looking forward to the SAFF Championship as the leading football country in this part of Asia. These 4-5 games are extremely crucial for us as we won’t have any other chance of getting together before the start of the third round AFC Asian Cup qualifiers next season. So these matches should help us to improve a few points in our game,” said Stimac.
Notable absentees from the squad are Sandesh Jinghan, Rowlin Borges and Ashique Kuruniyan. Jinghan has been in Croatia since making his move to Prva HNL club Sibenik and is reportedly injured. Meanwhile, 21-year-old forward Rahim Ali has retained his place in the national squad since making his international debut against Nepal on September 2.
The Indian team is coming into the tournament on the back of some mediocre performances against Nepal a few weeks ago. The first friendly match in Kathmandu on September 2 ended in a 1-1 draw while the second one on September 5 finished 2-1 in India’s favor.
The Blue Tigers have won the SAFF Championship (formerly SAARC Cup) seven times – 1993 Lahore, 1997 Kathmandu, 1999 Margao, 2005 Karachi, 2009 (U23 squad) Dhaka, 2011 New Delhi and 2015/16 Thiruvananthapuram.
October 4: Bangladesh vs India (IST 4.30pm).
October 7: India vs Sri Lanka (IST 4.30pm).
October 10: Nepal vs India (IST 8.30pm).
October 13: India vs Maldives (IST 8.30pm).
GOALKEEPERS: Gurpreet Singh, Amrinder Singh, Vishal Kaith.
DEFENDERS: Pritam Kotal, Seriton Fernandes, Chinglensana Singh, Rahul Bheke, Subhasish Bose, Mandar Rao Dessai.
MIDFIELDERS: Udanta Singh, Brandon Fernandes, Lalengmawia, Anirudh Thapa, Sahal Abdul Samad, Jeakson Singh, Glan Martins, Suresh Singh, Liston Colaco, Yasir Mohammad.
FORWARDS: Manvir Singh, Rahim Ali, Sunil Chhetri, Farukh Choudhary.
