Footballers keen to maintain winning run

A confident India will be keen to maintain their winning run when they take on Turkmenistan in a crucial Group C football league match of the Asian Games at Yangsan tomorrow. The Indians had recovered from a sluggish start to thrash Bangladesh 3-0 in their opening match and desperately need another victory against tomorrow to keep their hopes alive to make it to the quarter-final stage.

Although the Indians were far from impressive in thefirst match despite the handsome victory margin, new coach Stephen Constantine was confident that his team will manage to put it across Turkmenistan if they continued to play the way they have done in recent times. “We played good football for about 25 minutes only in the first match against Bangladesh. We have to be more consistent and play well for all the 90 minutes,” Constantine said.

The Indians have to guard against complacency as Turkmenistan, who were drubbed 4-0 by strong contenders China in their first match, have the ability to spring a surprise against any fancied team on their day and have a number of talented players in their ranks.

“We are not taking them lightly. You have to play well inall the matches, so there is no question of taking anybody lightly,” the coach said. The Indians will be handicapped to a great extent due the absence of defender Deepak Mondal who has to sit out of the match because of a controversial red card booking in the opener.