On the eve of India’s inconsequential final match in 2018 Fifa World Cup second round qualification against Turkmenistan at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium here, head coach Stephen Constantine referred to the national side’s season as satisfactory.
Even though India have won only one of their seven previous qualifying matches and are rooted to the bottom of Group D with three points, Constantine feels lessons were learnt from tough encounters. India defeated Guam 1-0 in November to secure their only win in the qualifiers.
“We’ve achieved more or less most of the objectives we set out from the beginning,” said Constantine, implying the SAFF Championship triumph in January. “Obviously we haven’t won enough games to be higher than where we are. I thought we played quite well against Oman at home, but didn’t get the result.”
The Englishman had few complaints about the team’s lacklustre performances but urged for the need to play stronger opponents regularly. “If you don’t play internationals against good sides consistently, you are not going to learn.
“With all due to respect to teams from the SAFF region, we should be beating them. I would rather lose 1-0 to Iran than beat somebody from SAFF region 4-0. The only way to do that is by testing yourself against strong opponents,” he said.
India lost 1-2 to Turkmenistan in the away leg in October, and the hosts are most likely to be without their captain, Sunil Chhetri, yet again. The Bengaluru FC striker who was left out of the Iran game with a groin injury resumed training, but Constantine said he would wait till the “last-minute” to consider his influential player for selection.
Bikash Jairu who was substituted in the first half in Tehran has joined Robin Singh, Eugeneson Lyngdoh and Dhanpal Ganesh on the treatment table. Bengaluru’s 19-year-old striker Udanta Singh who was given his senior debut in the 0-4 defeat on Thursday is likely to keep his place beside stand-in skipper Jeje Lalpekhlua.
The visitors have lost their three previous away qualifiers and are third in Group D on 10 points behind group leaders Iran (17) and Oman (14). Despite confirming their exit from the World Cup qualifiers, both Turkmenistan and India have progressed to the Asian Cup qualifier third round and play-off round respectively.
“Turkmenistan are a very good side. Getting a point against Iran gives you an idea of how good they are. They’ll be a strong test.”
