Indian football team head coach Igor Stimac lavished praise on skipper Sunil Chhetri following a win over Bangladesh in the ongoing FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, and AFC Asian Cup China Qualifiers on Monday.
India defeated Bangladesh 2-0 at the Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium at Al Sadd Club in Doha. The 36-year-old Chhetri scored a brace in the second half of the match to hand India a thrilling win.
"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 a virtual press conference.
Stimac made three changes from the side that took on Qatar in the last match. The Blue Tigers made a cautious start, playing it amongst themselves, searching for the gaps
"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.
The coach said the best defence against a weak team is to fire on cylinders right from the start of the match.
"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.
India moved to six points from seven matches, while Bangladesh are at two points seven matches. India next play Afghanistan in their last group league match on June 15.
"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 concluded.
( With inputs from ANI )
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