India vs Afghanistan, FIFA World Cup Qualifiers: Asian Cup disappointment leaves Stimac and Co with no place to hide

Even before the Asian Cup began, Indian men’s football coach Igor Stimac was busy emphasising that the FIFA World Cup Qualifiers were his priority, not the continental tournament.

Eventually, India had a disappointing campaign at the Asian Cup with three defeats in as many games and exited without scoring a single goal.

Did Stimac pick qualifiers over the Asian Cup because he knew his team wasn’t ready for the continental elites or did they fail because of a lack of preparation time? These are important questions but the time to answer them is gone.

Two more qualifiers — against Afghanistan — are upon us, with the first one taking place on 21 March (22 March in India) in Saudi Arabia and second on 26 March in Guwahati.

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While Stimac has a contract till 2026, there have been rumours of him leaving after the ongoing second round of qualifiers. Even if they are untrue, it’s finally time for the Croat to build his legacy as India coach and leave a lasting impression by taking the Blue Tigers into the third round of FIFA World Cup Qualifiers for the first time.

After all, that’s what he has been promising for a while.

In that respect, it’s advantage India in many ways even if they are third in the four-team group. Their 1-0 away win in Kuwait before a 3-0 defeat at home to Asian champions Qatar has placed Sunil Chhetri and Co in such a position where back-to-back wins over Afghanistan will put them on the brink of history even if other teams would still be alive.

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World Cup Qualifiers: What India need to do against Afghanistan

Stimac is well aware of the scenarios but is focussed on the current job.

“Each game is important from the aspect of self-confidence and rankings. But our priority and the final goal is to qualify for Round 3. There are various options to get there and obviously, nothing will be decided in the next two games. The matches in June against Kuwait and Qatar will tell us everything," Stimac said on the eve of the Afghanistan game.

After the Asian Cup reality check, the team has to make sure they don’t get carried away by the scenarios. But it’s also important that they turn up with their A-game every time in the remaining four qualifiers. It’s important for Stimac’s legacy but also to show that all the hype that surrounded the Blue Tigers last year and the positive coverage they got was everything they deserved.

India’s task in many ways have been made easy by the fact that top Afghan players are missing due to their tussle with the Afghanistan Football Federation (AFF) which has been accused of corruption and match-fixing. 18 players from the full-strength squad had boycotted the national team recently and only three have returned.

They, however, have one advantage, that of playing at Abha which is 2,470 metres above sea level.

India have had five full training sessions in Abha and must work extra hard to upset all the odds including the new conditions and heightened expectations.

Match timings, date and venue: 12.30 AM IST on 22 March at Damac Stadium, Abha, Saudi Arabia.

Live streaming in India: FanCode.

TV channel in India: DD Sports.

India squad: 

Goalkeepers: Gurpreet Singh Sandhu, Amrinder Singh, Vishal Kaith.

Defenders: Akash Mishra, Mehtab Singh, Rahul Bheke, Nikhil Poojary, Subhasish Bose, Anwar Ali, Amey Ranawade, Jay Gupta.

Midfielders: Anirudh Thapa, Brandon Fernandes, Liston Colaco, Mahesh Singh Naorem, Sahal Abdul Samad, Suresh Singh Wangjam, Jeakson Singh Thounaojam, Deepak Tangri, Lalengmawia Ralte, Imran Khan.

Forwards: Sunil Chhetri, Lallianzuala Chhangte, Manvir Singh, Vikram Partap Singh.