Despite the Indian team not having a great outing in their last two international friendlies against Azerbaijan and Oman,coach Savio Mederia said he was confident his team would do well in the opening match of the AFC Challenge Cup football tournament against higher ranked Tajikistan on Friday.
It was difficult for us to field the front line team in the two international friendlies,as most of our players were nursing some injuries. But now all of them have recovered. We have a full-strength side at our disposal, Medeira said.
He added that the Sunil-Chhetri led side would stand to benefit from arriving early for the tournament in an effort to get acclaimatised to the conditions.
We will fight till the last second of the match. We would not give any chance to our rivals, he added. Tajikistan are strong opponents. We need to stay alert in all the departments,especially defence.
They have a very potent forward line and striker Yusuf Rabiev is a dangerous poacher. Whatever we have learnt in our preparation,we need to take it forward. We need to play as cohesive unit and learn to handle the pressure, he said ahead of the match.