FIFA World Cup Qualifiers | Nothing is more important than results, says Igor Stimac
India national football team coach Igor Stimac has admitted that nothing would be more important than the outcomes for the side in the FIFA World Cup qualifiers scheduled to begin on Thursday. India have been clubbed with Qatar, Afghanistan, Oman, and Bangladesh in Asia group of qualifiers.
After sticking to his demand during the Intercontinental Cup that outcomes hardly mattered as he was looking for the perfectly balanced eleven for the World Cup qualifiers, the Croatian has now changed his view. India would be playing Oman on Thursday and the coach revealed that he has been focusing more on the result over anything else.
“Now, nothing is more important than the results and I’ve not forgotten that I have two aims with the Indian team. These are demands from fans of the Indian team: first, they want us to play exciting football and second, win games,” said, Stimac reported TOI.
It would be Stimac’s real test as well, for the plethora of experiments he has been doing over the past few months would finally either get fruition or he would be deemed as a failure. While India’s offensive playing style has got the fans very excited and the young players have done a great job at it, it has been the defence that has been Stimac’s biggest concern.
With the likes of Sandesh Jhingan and Anas Edathodika being absent from the side that played the Intercontinental Cup, Adil Khan and young Narender Gahlot did a half-decent job guarding Gurpreet Singh Sandhu and Amrinder Singh, who were not convincing themselves either. Hence, India’s biggest leak would be their backline against a high scoring Oman side.