Stimac backs India to qualify for Asian Cup

Says the team has prepared well despite injuries and a cancelled friendly

KOLKATA

Despite all odds, Indian football team head coach Igor Stimac is backing his side to qualify for the AFC Asian Cup.

Even as the team has been troubled by injuries and cancellation of a friendly against Zambia, Stimac was satisfied with the overall preparation for the Asian Cup final qualifying round, starting here from June 8.

“The camp was planned carefully. Our main worry was fitness. The Ballari (camp) was a good decision. It had good facilities for fitness conditioning. Coming to Kolkata was a good choice. It’s a football city. You get that extra needed to push players to the limit,” said Stimac at a roundtable interaction on Tuesday, hours after the team landed here after playing its friendly against Jordan in Doha.

“Only bad thing was Zambia cancelling the match.”

Stimac said that centre-back Deepak Tangri would replace Ritwik Das as the latter was ruled out due to chicken pox.

Looking back at the Jordan match, Stimac said, “We went into it with a great mindset, thinking how to win. Most of all, for me, is the quality of performance.”