FIFA World Cup Qualifier | India under pressure at home, believes Bobby Mimms

FIFA World Cup Qualifier | India under pressure at home, believes Bobby Mimms

no photo

Bangladesh goalkeeping coach Bobby Mimms is of the belief that India will be under pressure of losing in front of their home crowd in their World Cup qualifier game against Bangladesh at the Salt Lake Stadium, Kolkata. India will be missing the services of defender Sandesh Jhingan due to an injury.

While the Indian football team players and coach believe that the expected full-house home crowd will be a boost to their game, the Bangladesh goalkeeping coach Bobby Mimms feels that India will be under pressure due to the home crowd in their World Cup qualifiers on Tuesday. The 104-ranked India will be eyeing to notch up their first win in Group E to keep their slender qualification hopes alive by defeating Bangladesh who are 83 places below them in the FIFA chart.

"The pressure is actually on India because they're going to be playing in front of a big packed house. If India lose, it's a big upset, so we are aware that they'll be under a lot of pressure," Mimms told the PTI on Sunday.

India earned a point after going down to Oman in their opener which leaves them with one point from two matches to be placed fourth in the table behind Oman while Bangladesh have lost both their matches to remain on the bottom of the group table. In their last match, Bangladesh fought bravely and have a lot of positives to take out of the 0-2 loss to Qatar in Dhaka.

"We all know how bravely we played against Qatar and we can cause India a problem. I think the pressure will be on India and not so much on us."

The former Blackburn Rovers goalkeeper has said that his side won two friendly matches against Bhutan before going down bravely to Qatar and feels playing with the ā€œsame level of intensityā€ will cause India problems.Ā India will be missing the services of star defender Sandesh Jhingan due to an ACL tear injury and also Anwar Ali (junior) but Mimms said the home side will still be a force to reckon with.

"We're not taking India lightly despite the fact that they have got a couple of injuries. They have got other good players who play at a good level in India. No matter what 11 they put out it's going to be a good team," the 55-year-old coach said.

"We've just got to stick to our game plan and work at it and hopefully it nullifies any threat. Obviously, Chhetri scores a lot of goals and he's a good player in the ISL and for the India team he is a talisman. We've got to be aware of him. But there are 10 other players on the pitch. We've got to be aware of the things and tactically and technically we've prepared our goalkeepers."

Get updates! Follow us on

Open all