Bengaluru (June 20) - Indian Coach, Croatian Igor Stimac believes we must not look at the FIFA ranking to make predictions about the tournament.
The eight-time champions of the SAFF Championship - record winners of the competition, India this time are tied alongside Kuwait, Nepal and Pakistan in Group A.
India recently won the Intercontinential Cup which was held in Odisha. India defeated Lebanon in the final by 2-0. Referring to that triumph, Stimac stated that the mood in the Indian camp is "brilliant".
"The mood in the camp is brilliant, after winning the Intercontinental cup, and enjoying each and single second we spend in Odisha, Bhubaneswar helps us a lot. To come to up a point we can be happy with the performance, that’s the first point. But the second point is to repeat that on consistent basis. So we still can expect drop off form on certain positions." Stimac stated.
Stimac believes that teams will not enjoy the training facilities in Bengaluru, because "Bengaluru doesn’t enjoy natural grass turf", and no coach will love to work too much with players on artificial turf.
"I hope the tournament will be very competitive, as far as I’m concerned, our group all four teams have something special we are not different so each game will be very competitive. I think the crowd will enjoy every one who follows football will see lots of good game, and hope many goals." Stimac said.
Stimac is well aware about his opponents. He said he has sufficient amount of informations about the strengths and weaknesses of the teams.
"I'm well aware of the quality of Kuwait's team. I respect them a lot. I have many of my colleagues from Croatia working in Kuwait, to raise the standard of football. All available information is there and I expect great games." Stimac stated.
"Honestly, we know how Nepal's side is, forget the rankings. I watched last night's game where Pakistan played against Kenya, which is 102 in the rankings. Pakistan was better than Kenya - playing away, they created the better chances and were aggressive. Pakistan have 6-7 players developed abroad. Two players playing in England. Let’s not mislead the public. Let's not speak about the ranking. We have a very strong group here. No matter the ranking, we are gonna have tough games here. Don’t be misled about the great game we had against Lebanon. Now every day is a challenge. The opponents here didn’t come only to participate, they came to win the competition. It's gonna be tough."
Even though Pakistan will play their first game against India without a single full practice session in Bengaluru, Stimac believes Pakistan have enough to take on. As Pakistan have played three international games in the space of 10 days, it means they are in a better competitive mood, according to Stimac.
In the first game of the SAFF Championship, finalists in the last edition, Nepal will come up against debutant Kuwait.
