Indian coach Igor Stimac on Saturday opened up about India’s AFC Asian Cup preparation. The Blue Tigers are in Doha at the moment to play in the group stage of AFC Asian Cup. Stimac talked about the expectation of India’s football lovers, Indian football team’s goals and how the team is planning to adjust to the absence of several key players.
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India have been drawn into Group B of the AFC Asian Cup. They will take on Australia, Uzbekistan, and Syria. India will begin their AFC Asian Cup journey with the match against Australia on 13th January. They will then take on Uzbekistan on the 18th of January before playing their final group stage game against Syria on 23rd January.
In an interview with Rev Sportz, Stimac was asked about the lack of preparation in terms of practice matches ahead of the important tournament. “We don’t have time to complain about anything whatsoever. We are here, focused on what we need to do, preparing in the best possible way. Our job is to represent the country in the best possible way,” Stimac responded.
Stimac also talked about the difficulties he and his team had to overcome since taking the reigns.
“I’m amazed at how much we have done in the last four and a half years. Reconstruction of the team, two years of the pandemic, not being able to play any home games whatsoever. We survived everything, fulfilled all our goals,” he said.
India are missing several important players in the tournament such as defender Anwar Ali and attacker Ashique Kuruniyan.
“We have a stable team now and we need to perform to the best of our abilities. Yes we are missing a few important players, but their replacements need to do the job for us,” Stimac added.
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