After having brushed apart Pakistan, India will look to dish out the identical therapy to Nepal in its second Group-A match of the SAFF Championship on the Sree Kanteerava Stadium in Bengaluru on Saturday.
Nepal, at 174, is the third-lowest-ranked workforce within the competitors after Pakistan and Bangladesh and is coming off an opening-day defeat to Kuwait (1-3). Against a formidable and assured Indian workforce, it’s going to want a rousing efficiency.
India won’t have coach Igor Stimac on the touchline after the crimson card in opposition to Pakistan triggered the automated one-match suspension. But the burly Croat was at Friday’s coaching, main the huddle and giving a pep discuss.
Sahal Abdul Samad, one in all Stimac’s favorite gamers, is raring to place to make use of all of the acquired training-ground data. In the pre-match interplay, the 26-year-old creator careworn the necessity to “contribute more” to take some burden off skipper and talisman Sunil Chhetri.
Against Pakistan, India stitched collectively many promising passing strikes however couldn’t fairly get it proper within the closing third till the very finish, when Anwar Ali launched Udanta Singh by way of on purpose with a beautiful overhead move.
Sticking to course of
“We have a fantastic player who scores goals for us,” Sahal mentioned, smiling ear-to-ear. “The coach asks us to change that, and we need to start scoring. Not just Sunil bhai.
“Of course, we are happy to have him, [but] everything is a process and it can’t be changed suddenly. Four years [ago] we started to see a change in our way of playing, and we are really happy with the way we are going.”
Ready for problem
For Nepal, it’s a do-or-die conflict, for 2 losses out of two will sound the dying knell. But in such conditions, groups can generally throw warning to the wind.
“We have played them before, and we had a video session now,” mentioned Sahal. “They are good; they fight and are fearless. [But] we are ready for them.”
