Asian Cup is benchmark for us: Sunil Chhetri

Mumbai: India striker Sunil Chhetri believes the national team could have prepared better before the AFC Asian Cup qualifiers but added the squad was keen to qualify for the tournament which he regards as a benchmark for improvement.

“We talk about playing in the World Cup but if we have to better ourselves, this (Asian Cup) is a big benchmark, this is the real one. We have to qualify consistently and keep playing in the tournament on regular basis to improve,” Chhetri said here on Thursday.

“We have to play against Japan and better teams like that. I haven’t had a game against Australia, South Korea and Bahrain after the 2011 Asian Cup. This is it what you want, to play against better teams and even if you don’t win against better opponents we will always learn.

“We have to rub shoulders at the next level, say with Palestine, Lebanon etc, and then you know how much you are improving. Our target is to be in the top 12 in Asia,” he said.

Chhetri and his Bengaluru FC team-mates joined the camp on the day as did Mohun Bagan players like Jeje Lalpekhlua. Both clubs played in the AFC Cup game on Tuesday.

“We will have more chances if we play. Before the Puerto Rico game (in September 2016), if I was asked if we could beat them, I would not have been 100 percent sure. Sad we haven’t played after that,” he added.

“If we had more match training it definitely would have helped but now it is done, we have to understand what the coach wants. Playing for the nation is a different feeling altogether it something you always dream of. I am living that dream and have same hunger as when I was 20.”

Chettri played down talk of an easy pool in the qualifiers. “We just got a better pool but it will be nothing if we don’t qualify. The first game against Myanmar is important. Last time we played them away, we lost 1-0. We missed so many chances.

“We haven’t done very well in away games during my stint in the India team. We hope we can improve on that.

‘Jeje, Robin the future of India’
Chhetri praised fellow strikers Jeje and Robin Singh and said they could be the future of India upfront. He also praised Constantine for creating a big pool of players.

“Jeje has been prolific, Eugenesen (Lyngdoh) has been great, Gurpreet (Singh Sandhu) has come up. Robin Singh if he realises his potential can go to another level. We have a bigger pool of players to choose from which always helps,” he said.

The senior striker said Jeje realises his abilities and that’s why he has been outstanding.

“Jeje, in the last two and half years has been outstanding along with Eugene. Jeje has understood what works for him. He doesn’t do what he isn’t good at.”

But he felt former Bengaluru FC team-mate Robin hadn’t realised his full potential yet.

“He is an asset, you don’t have a player like him in this country. The day he realises that, you don’t have chance. He is around 6.3 feet and weighs 90 plus, he is strong. We got two good strikers for the future and can play Jeje and Robin in 4-4-2 formation.”