Sunil Chhetri netted a brace in the closing minutes to hand India a 2-0 win over Bangladesh to revive his team’s prospects of booking a direct place in the 2023 AFC Asian Cup.
Chhetri scored in the 79th and 90th minutes to give India their first win in the World Cup qualifiers. Chhetri broke the deadlock when he headed in Ashique Kuruniyan’s cross from the left. He then sealed the result by curling in a shot from long range in added time.
At the post-match press conference, the Indian men’s football team coach Igor Stimac said that Chhetri is still India’s best players with everyone still wondering when the talismanic forward is going to retire.
“Last year many people were asking last year or so, ‘when is Sunil going to retire?’ What are we going to do then if he retires?. By far, in every training, he (Chhetri) is our best player," Stimac said in the virtual press conference.
Bangladesh coach Jamie Day too heaped praise on Chhetri.
“For a long period, we did well, we had a couple of half-chances. But if you give Chhetri a chance, he scores like he showed tonight," Day said.
“He had two chances in the last 20 minutes, and he took them. So, we move on to the next game now and take positives out of that," he added.
In the first half though, India was finding it difficult to break down the Bangladesh defence.
Stimac clarified that the plan is always to attacking football.
“That’s the way we wanna play always, of course, it is not always possible but when we are favouring against lower ranks teams what we like to present. Especially to our supporters," said Stimac.
“In certain circumstances, to get a win wasn’t possible earlier but today they deserved to win. So all the credit to them they executed the game plan perfectly," he added.
Stimac made three changes from the Indian side that lost to Qatar in the last match, opting for a three at the back system.
“The best defence against lower-ranked teams is attacking – keeping them away from the ball. Just to explain, if we didn’t keep doing what we were doing right throughout the game, we wouldn’t have scored the second and allowed Bangladesh to come at us," said Stimac.
“Even we had not got a single point here of three games, all I had asked from my boys is to do well and represent their country in a disciplined manner. I am very proud of my boys. They worked their socks off, they are learning and I think we have a great future," Stimac added.
India now have six points from seven matches and are placed third in the group. They have lost three matches and three games have ended in draws. Qatar continue to lead Group E with 19 points from seven matches, thanks to their six wins. Oman have 12 points from five matches and are second.
Afghanistan are placed fourth, below India, with five points from six matches and Bangladesh are fifth in the five-team group with two points from seven matches. Bangladesh are the only team to have not won a match.
India next play Afghanistan in their last group league match on June 15 at the same venue, Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium.
(With inputs from Agencies)
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