Football
Stimac blames poor defending and inaccurate passes for India's defeat to Qatar
Qatar, who defeated Afghanistan 8-1, made a lightwork of India as Mustafa Meshaal, Almoez Ali and Yusuf Abdurisag toyed with Indian defence, scoring the three goals.
Igor Stimac was sacked after a five-year tenure. (Photo credit: AIFF)
Indian men's football team head coach Igor Stimac rued poor performance of his players that cost them a 0-3 defeat against Qatar in a crucial AFC World Cup Qualifiers - Round 2 match at Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar on Tuesday.
Qatar, who was coming to India on the back of a 8-1 win over Afghanistan, made a lightwork of India as Mustafa Meshaal, Almoez Ali and Yusuf Abdurisag toyed with Indian defence, scoring the three goals.
Qatar poured in two goals in the first four minutes of each half. The Indian defence looked cluless against Qatar's relentless attacks from either side of the flank with Amrinder Singh, who replaced regular goalkeeper Gurpreet Singh Sandhu, could not live up to the expectations.
His woeful distribution from the back meant Qatar, the reigning AFC Asian Cup champion, kept rattling the Indian defence with numerous attacks, and they created spaces for goal scoring chances.
Talking about the defeat, Stimac said, "Qatar was in a different league. The way they looked on the pitch, the physicality, the basic skill, the passing quality, the final third execution, it was all there."
The Croat also did not hide his team's flaws.
Analysing the team's performance, he said, "For us today, against a team like this, you cannot give away anything."
"Today, that was not the case. We had some poor reactions defensively, some poor passes, and also when we created situations of how situations in the final third we were not accurate. You know, maybe we had too much respect," he added.
India took on Qatar without his four key players, including Anwar Ali and Manvir Singh, the goal scorer of the last match against Kuwait.
As the Indian team played without its key players, it conceded early advantage to Qatar.
“I appreciate our boys’ commitment and faith and that’s something which we need to take out from today’s game" the coach said.
“When you go early down in the game against Qatar, you fear a heavy defeat but our boys kept playing and trying and that’s what I want from them. And that’s part of the learning process and it’s a good lesson,” Stimac said.
