Igor Stimac confident India can progress to third round of FIFA World Cup Qualifiers

Indian football team manager Igor Stimac said they can still progress to the third round of the FIFA World Cup Qualifiers, putting up a confident and strong front despite an embarrassing defeat to lower-ranked Afghanistan in Guwahati on Tuesday.

Ranked 158th in the world, Afghanistan came from behind to beat 117th ranked India 2-1 as the hosts suffered a shock defeat despite talisman Sunil Chhetri's 94th international goal in his 150th match .

“Of course, I think we can qualify (for third round of World Cup Qualifiers) and I told you before as well we are going to be a different team after a long camp.

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“You can see that half of our players are not able to bring that intensity and I cannot change that in five days, I am sorry,” Stimac said after the match.

“I repeat myself again and again and again. I hope you remember all these players were the same players in June-July and Afghanistan is not a different team than Kuwait and Lebanon teams that we had beaten and dominated.”

The Croatian apologised for the defeat following a below-par performance. When asked if he would resign, he said that he is here to “fulfil a mission” and vowed to remain in-charge until June.

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Stimac, who was appointed as the manager in 2019, last year received a contract extension which keeps him in the job until June 2026.

He said that this is the same Indian team that was consistently winning last year. “The difference is only in the intensity,” he said.

He said had he got more time to prepare, the results would have been different. Stimac did not agree with the suggestion that his team was tactically outplayed by Afghanistan but said that India should not have conceded the penalty through a silly mistake.

He claimed the Afghan attack was one-dimensional, playing long ball into the penalty area and the Indian defence was “ineffective in checking this predictable approach.”

“We did many things correct today but something that was very poor was that after being in control for most of the game, there were some points in the game when we give something away. As a team, we are frozen for 5-6 minutes, which is inexplicable.”

“It’s not only about trying to qualify for the third round, it’s also about what we are going to do there, when we get there. We have to do well in June otherwise we will stay where we were in the last eight years, qualifying against Myanmar and Guam.”