AFC Asian Cup | I would like India to go through to the knockouts, says Renedy Singh
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Renedy Singh has stated that he would love to see the Indian team making it to the knockout stage and added that even a single point from India’s last league encounter might be enough to take them through. India currently stand second on the Group-A table after winning and losing one game each.
After starting the AFC Asian Cup in an explosive manner defeating Thailand 4-1 in their opening encounter, India’s performance took a nosedive in the next game where they lost to the hosts the United Arab Emirates (UAE) 0-2. Though that loss dented India’s chances of reaching the knockouts, they still have one more game to make it to the round of 16. Â
India will play their final league encounter tomorrow against Bahrain who
“I would love to see India going through and a point in the next match will do,” said Singh as reported by PTI.
Singh also spoke about India’s loss against UAE and stated that had India capitalised on their chances the story would have been different. The former midfielder also praised Sunil Chhetri for creating a goal-scoring opportunity.
“If you see what happened, I said, in the beginning, UAE likes to build-up start from the middle, Ashiq is trying his best but what a pass from Sunil, if it could have just gone on either side. Credit goes to the goalkeeper, but he could have finished the score.”
Northeast United FC coach Eelco Schattorie, on the other hand, took a more realist approach and expressed that India should focus on taking that one point from the match against Bahrain as they do not possess enough firepower or creativity to dominate the game.
“There are moments in a tournament where you need to be realistic and I don’t think that we have the creativity to be dominant, so I feel your strategy should be more on scoring that one point and going through,” Schattorie said.
