India s challenges ahead of World Cup qualifiers
The Croatian coach s biggest headache is to select and assemble a fully fit squad for the qualifiers. Except for FC Goa and Bengaluru FC players, who took part in the AFC Champions League and AFC Cup qualifiers respectively in April, most of the Indian players last played in February or March
As a result, instead of choosing the squad solely on merit, Stimac now has to make do with the fittest possible players available.
The Indian squad that will be selected will get limited practice sessions before taking the field against giants Qatar. As lockdown has been imposed in several parts of India, it is not possible for the AIFF to arrange for training sessions of the team in India before they travel.
Ritabrata Banerjee 3:13 PM IST 12/05/21 The Indian team, in the absence of star player Sunil Chhetri, had managed to hold the Asian champions to a goalless draw.
The last time India had faced Qatar was back on September 10, 2019, in Doha in a 2022 World Cup qualifiers fixture. The Blue Tigers scripted history by holding the reigning Asian champions to a goalless draw on their own terrain.
Igor Stimac s took the field in the absence of skipper Sunil Chhetri but the team defended valiantly against Qatar.
As India are now once again all set to take on Qatar in the reverse tie on June 3, we take a look at the players who featured on that historic night in Doha.
Speaking to Football Association of Malaysia (FAM), Azman took the opportunity to offer a rebuttal to Kelantan FC owner Norizam Turkiman who slammed FAM for a poor national team standing in recent times. It is better not to divert the topic to another matter like the national team when the dispute is between two bodies or with the governing body. One only need to prove themselves by taking their team or club to be champions first and produce good players for Malaysia, in essence take care of things within your responsibilities. What is important is that over the last two to three years, the national team s ranking has gone up from 178 to 153 in a short period of time.