Days before India begin their AFC Asian Cup campaign against Australia in Doha, the team’s talisman Sunil Chhetri explains to RevSportz why it’s important to play against stronger Asian teams.
The following are excerpts:
Boria: If we do well against Afghanistan, if we do well against Kuwait at home, we can make it to the next round (of World Cup qualifiers). How confident are you and how important is it for you as a captain and player?
Sunil: We have a decent chance. Win against Kuwait was very important, but we were really expecting that we could get a point against Qatar. The fourth-minute goal in the first half and the third-minute goal in the second half killed us because when you are playing against a team of that stature and that talent, you cannot give them goals like that.
But we also took a lot of positives from that game and we will keep going. We genuinely want to go to the last stage of the World Cup qualifiers. That will give us a great opportunity to rub shoulders with the best in Asia. The more we play against the Uzbek, Australia, UAE, Qatar, Japan, Korea, the more answers we are going to get, how much we are improving.
And the way we played against Qatar, one of the things that we understood as a nation is we are improving. It is not that now you are going to see a team which is just going to go and defend. We have an idea, a lot of players are improving and collectively, we are not scared. We know where we stand, we are very humble. We know we are between 14 and 18 in Asia in terms of level. We know we can take it from 10 to 14.
We played well against Iraq. The top six teams are still difficult — Qatar, Australia, Japan, Saudi, South Korea, Iran, the ones who play the World Cup. It is still difficult because the level is completely different, but we are optimistic. And the only way we are going to improve is to play against these teams often, quite often.
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“The only way we’re going to improve is playing against these teams” Sunil Chhetri emphasizes the necessity of facing top Asian teams like Australia, Uzbekistan and Syria for improvement.
He highlights the positives from the recent Qatar match in the FIFA World… pic.twitter.com/dEtrdRNJ3P
— RevSportz (@RevSportz) January 8, 2024
Boria: That is the question. Is that the way forward and that is why the Asian Cup is so important?
Sunil: Yeah, and fortunately, our last away game was Kuwait, which is a difficult game. Then Qatar, is a proper contender for the World Cup. Then we got Australia, one of the most improved teams. I think these games give you a fair idea and also keep you on your toes. It will also tell us exactly how much we have improved; and how much we have to improve. It gives you a realistic mirror, which is very important.
And without disrespecting the SAFF Cup, we have won it. But where we want to reach, we will not reach if we keep playing SAFF nations. And this is with due respect to all SAFF nations. You play Qatar, UAE, Palestine, and Lebanon, which is from 10 to 14 to 8, and then you start punching above your weight and start getting a game against Australia, Japan, and South Korea.
Japan is beating Germany and South American teams. They are one of the biggest motivators for all Asian teams. Japan, South Korea and even Australia. Look at the players they have, look how they play, look at the players where they are playing. Mitoma is making fun of EPL defenders, Son is one of the most prolific strikers in EPL. Kim signs for Bayern and plays week in and week out.
Ten to 15 years back, it was not the case. Look how much they have improved. They are a real motivation for all Asian teams. We got to try and keep playing them every now and then. One reason is to be motivated. The other is to know exactly where we are and then you get the answers.
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