Press Trust of India
Vientanne (Laos), June 1: Their preliminary round campaign ending in disappointment, India will need to get their act together and salvage some pride when they take on Laos in a play-off match of the 2019 AFC Asian Cup Football Qualifiers here Thursday.
India were left to feature in this play-off match after they finished at the bottom of their group during the preliminary round of the joint qualification campaign of the 2019 AFC Asian Cup and 2018 FIFA World Cup. India finished the event with three points.
Head coach Stephen Constantine has come here with 21 players, but even then he is missing some key players who have been sidelined due to injuries. As usual, Constantine was ready to spring that excuse when he talked to reporters here Wednesday.
“A number of our key players are unfortunately injured. In fact, in our last practice session, we lost another promising youngster who might have started tomorrow (Thursday),” Constantine said at the pre-match press conference here.
“But there’s no point looking back and crying. We are ready with what we have. Every team plays to win. We will play hard. I believe in the ability of my players,” he added.
Captain Sunil Chhetri, who has had some idea of Laos football while playing for Bengaluru FC against Laos Toyota FC in the AFC Cup stated that the completion will be tough as the home side ‘have some good player’.
“Some of my teammates have been in Laos before but for me this is the first time. When I played for Bengaluru FC against Laos Toyota FC in the AFC Cup, both were tough games. There are 7-8 players of that side in the Laos national side. So it will not be an easy game,” Chhetri asserted.