Indian football team captain and legend Sunil Chhetri expects his team to perform better in the rest of the AFC Asian Cup qualifying games after their 2-0 win against Cambodia at the Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata on Wednesday.
The Blue Tigers were dominant throughout the game and while their defence did well, their attacking players did not perform as expected in a game that they were expected to win by a big margin.
Speaking to AIFF’s media team after the game, Chhetri started by staing, “We are happy with the clean sheet. There are a lot of things that we could have done better. I am not trying to be harsh. The weather was very humid and of course it was the same for both teams.
“The tempo of the game could not be maintained for longer time. It was really humid. I’m not trying to give an excuse but at the end of the day to keep a clean sheet and get the three points was very important and which we did. I’m sure the coach will have a lot of things to say when he watches the videos. Overall, to start on a good note and keep a clean sheet feels good.”
Chhetri then spoke about whether the team could have scored more goals in the game and said, “We should have got more goals. In international football you don’t get the opportunity where you can get in your players and get into places where you can cross and do some damage. I think we coulnd’t utilise that as much as we should have. But again I’m probably being just old and throwing tantrums, At the end of the day, I’m very happy that we got the three points.”
Talking about his team’s biggest positives from this game ahead of their match against Afghanistan, Chhetri concluded, “The biggest positive was the clean sheet. A lot of boys got the feel of what it means to play ninety minutes. A lot of boys hadn’t played after the ISL. A lot of players were in different physical conditions. So it was good for the coach to see. Some of the boys got a run, some of them played ninety minutes which was good.
“Also the coach has already told us that with three matches in 6-7 days, he will need everyone of us. So yes, that’s the positive. We haven’t yet seen the videos of us and how we have performed and also the Afghanstan vs Hong Kong game. We will sit and watch that and come up with a plan.”
