Football
'Indian football has improved significantly': Afghanistan coach Ashley Westwood
In the past, Westwood managed three Indian clubs: Bengaluru FC, ATK FC and RoundGlass Punjab FC.
Ashley Westwood is the head coach of Afghanistan.
Ahead of the second leg of the FIFA World Cup 2026 and AFC Asian Cup 2027 joint qualifiers between India and Afghanistan in Guwahati on March 26, Ashley Westwood, the Afghanistan coach, said Indian football improved significantly in the past decade due to fitness and 'conditioning'.
“Ten years ago when I came here, compared to that, (the Indian) football has improved significantly,” Westwood, who managed Bengaluru FC, ATK FC and RoundGlass Punjab FC in India, told PTI.
“Every player is physically fit, everyone is conditioned correctly, they last 90 minutes (and) you don’t see Indian players getting cramps,” he added.
Westwood, who joined Afghanistan in 2023, said his team's focus will be on getting the basics correct.
“(Even) Cristiano Ronaldo also missed chances, and still he is one of the best players in the world that’s football,” Westwood said.
“Just get the ball in the right areas and play well — that’s all we are concerned about,” he said, adding Afghanistan's chances have improved since he took charge.
In the first leg of the second round of qualifiers, India played out a 1-1 draw against Afghanistan on March 22 in Abha, Saudi Arabia.
Following the draw, despite India's failure to win against a second-string Afghanistan team, Blue Tigers coach Igor Stimac said, "I'm not disappointed with the result at the end because we created three, four really good chances. We couldn't score, which is obvious. The problem which has been following us for many, many years, it's a well-known problem in our football", said Stimac in the post-match press conference."
