Bhubaneswar (Odisha) [India], June 14 : Having already sealed their place in the Intercontinental Cup final, the Indian senior men's team will take on Lebanon in their last group match on Thursday at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar.
After seeing off Mongolia 2-0 in the opening game, the Blue Tigers edged Vanuatu 1-0 on Friday thanks to an exquisite Sunil Chhetri strike late on. Lebanon were held to a frustrating stalemate by Mongolia earlier in the day, which meant six points were enough for India to qualify for the final with a game to spare.
However, any thoughts of the India-Lebanon clash being a dead rubber must be thrown into the bin. India head coach Igor Stimac only targets a win against the Cedars and is banking on his best eleven to get the job done.
"We're playing at home, and we come out in every game with the only aim of winning it," Stimac was quoted by AIFF.com.
"It doesn't matter how Lebanon fared in their previous game. They found it tough to play two games at four in the afternoon. For us, it's going to be a difficult match, as some of their players have enormous quality. They do have weaknesses also, of course, which we could see. So, it will be an interesting game, maybe not beautiful, but definitely interesting," he previewed.
The match is crucial for India in the broader sense of the FIFA Rankings. With Lebanon currently placed at 99 and India at 101, a win for the Blue Tigers will see them overtake the Cedars and break into the top 100 again.
After India had to battle really hard against Vanuatu on Friday, only breaking the deadlock in the 80th minute, Stimac shared the good and the bad of the result.
"Many things were not as I wanted them to be, and we will work on them. But many things were beautiful as well, which we could enjoy," he said.
Stimac shared his delight with the fact that his side didn't lose faith and tried their best to score until the end, which they did.
"It's important to break teams down early because as time progresses, it gets tougher and tougher. We saw that in Lebanon's game against Mongolia as well," Stimac added.
Sharing possible insights on who all the fans could expect to see in the line-up on Thursday, Stimac said, "22 of my players have played in the first two games. Now, after the last training session before the next game, we will see which is the best and the fittest eleven which could win against Lebanon."
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