Indian football: 'Will be working to bring back Liston, Udanta and Bheke back to the squad,' says Igor Stimac

Stimac wasn’t able to deploy a full-strength playing XI in the 0-2 loss to Jordan in a friendly match on Saturday as the trio were injured.

Indian men's football team head coach Igor Stimac; Credit: Twitter/@IndianFootball
By Sreejith C R | May 31, 2022 | 3 Min Read follow icon Follow Us

After suffering a 0-2 loss against Jordan in an international friendly, India national team head coach Igor Stimac has confirmed that he will be working on bringing back Liston Colaco, Udanta Singh and Rahul Bheke for their next assignments. The trio missed the friendly in Doha because of injury issues. Stimac wasn’t able to deploy a full-strength playing XI against the Middle-Eastern side because of injury problems and the team looked short of match practice and bereft of ideas especially in attack, with the game being their third international match in the last two months. The Blue Tigers will land in Kolkata on Tuesday for the  AFC Asian Cup third round qualifiers, starting on June 8. 

India hasn’t scored in their last three games

“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 said post the game. The Blue Tigers will take on Cambodia, Afghanistan and Hong Kong in the space of seven days at Salt Lake Stadium. Stimac side winless in their last three international outings and their last goal was scored by Rahul Bheke in a friendly match against Bahrain on March 23. The Blue Tigers have really struggled to find the back of the net and therefore the return of Liston from injury would be crucial to their chances of making it to the Asian Cup finals.

Read more: ISL: Karanjit Singh extends contract with Kerala Blasters FC till 2023

Both Liston and Bheke were in superb form for their respective clubs

Both Liston and Bheke have been in superb form for their respective clubs off-late. Liston finished the 2021-22 ISL campaign as the top Indian goal-scorer with eight goals in 20 appearances for ATK Mohun Bagan. The 23-year-old continued his impressive goal-scoring form to the continental stage, netting four times in the three AFC Cup group stage fixtures. Meanwhile Bheke is a key player in Stimnac’s plans. The Mumbai City FC defender became the first Indian to score a goal in Asian football’s elite club competition when he headed home against Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya last month. The 31-year-old is a versatile defender who can be deployed anywhere in the back-line. The ISL winner is a well-built footballer who is likely to be deployed at the right-back position in the upcoming games.

There are some issues in the defence: Stimac

Reflecting on the Jordan match, Stimac said the boys were compact for most of the game but couldn’t score and as a team they will try to sort out some issues in their defence. “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. There are some issues at the defending front which we faced, and need to be changed,” he said post the game. The Blue Tigers conceded both the goals in the final 25 minutes courtesy of strikes from Abu Amarah and Abu Zrayaq. 





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