SAFF Championships: 7 time champions India to start campaign against plucky Bangladesh

A day prior to India’s opening fixture against Bangladesh in the SAFF Championship, and with the morning practice session done, the boys had already moved into the match zone.

Bangladesh have been a tough customer for India customer who had needed a late equaliser in the first leg of the 2022 World Cup qualifiers match in Kolkata to draw 1-1. The Blue Tigers had though, won the second leg 2-0.Head coach Igor Stimac is taking the SAFF Championships, as the last opportunity for the players to play international matches before the start of the third round of 2023 AFC Asian Cup qualifiers in February next year.He has not minced words in declaring that India are the favourites to win the tournament, saying ‘we will justify ourselves.’”The first game is always the most difficult game. Bangladesh are a known opponent, but we respect them immensely. In fact, we respect each and every team playing out here, and they have an equal chance to win the tournament,” the coach said.Stimac made no secret that he will be making the most out of the ATK Mohun Bagan and Bengaluru FC players, having played in Maldives earlier in the AFC Cup.”We rely on Bengaluru FC and ATKMB players because not only they played here a few weeks back, but they started work with their respective clubs. And they had enough training sessions, and games in their legs. So their engines are good for such a tournament,” he said.”We need to be careful as to how many minutes we give to each player corresponding to what they can do at the moment with regards to endurance capacities.”Sunil Chhetri said the message from our coaching staff and head coach is very clear that the players have to minimise mistakes.””It is more and much more about how we play. We have to make sure that in every game no matter what, we give 100 percent. We cannot be complacent,” he said.Chhetri, a veteran of 16 years in international football, said he doesn’t want to lose any game for the country.”When you are young you play for a lot of things. As you get older, a lot of them diminishes. I’ve played over 100 games for India, I don’t have another 100 and I want to make the most of all the games I have left.”I want to win a game if I am playing for my country. Both the games against Bangladesh have been extremely difficult ones. I don’t want to lose any game for my country,” he said.