India’s head coach Igor Stimac believes the match against Kuwait is the biggest game of his career. The Blue Tigers will face Kuwait at the Salt Lake Stadium on Thursday and if they win, they will strengthen their chances of qualifying for the third round of the World Cup qualifiers. India has never qualified for the third round and thus it is a huge match for them.
India was recently stunned by Afghanistan by 2-1 and they will need to be at their best against Kuwait to get the desired result. This will also be Sunil Chhetri’s swansong and the team will want to give him a fitting farewell.
Igor Stimac said in the pre-match press conference, “This can change the future of Indian football. Although I’m a foreigner in this country, I feel more like an Indian. Honestly, this is the biggest game altogether in my playing and coaching career, and the simple reason is that we have a chance to make 1.5 billion Indians happy tomorrow.
“We need to do everything to make it happen. That’s the reason this is the biggest game of my career together in the coaching and playing days,” the head coach further added.
The Croatian admitted it is going to be challenging for his team to get a win against Kuwait as the opposition also has some quality players.
“About Kuwait, it’s not only about height. They have great individual qualities, which can make a difference,” he said.
“They don’t have their best striker, and we don’t have Sandesh [Jhingan]. They impressed me with their performance against Qatar. Watching my boys day by day, I am at peace,” he continued.
The 56-year-old wants his players to maintain their calm throughout the match to get a positive result.
“We did play several games against Kuwait, and all the games were very tough tight results; either team could have won the game. I would say that our best game against them was in Kuwait, where we were in shape and not allowing Kuwait any clear chances. That is something that we need to repeat with discipline, focus, and tight marking to reach the opposition box and score the goal, so the only difference is that we didn’t have any friendly games in our preparations, but the boys worked tremendously hard on details on everything else, and we will be ready for every scenario,” Stimac remarked.
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