Kolkata: The Indian U-23 side played some dominant football to outplay their Singaporean counterparts by a solitary goal at Chao Chu Kang Stadium in Singapore on Sunday in the first of the two friendly matches. The only goal of the game came from the 21-year old Germanpreet Singh who played a curling shot in the 80th minute to give India the lead which ultimately turned out to be the winner.
The goal was an absolute delight to watch as Germanpreet and Anirudh Thapa controlled the Indian midfield and with the players on the both the flanks operating at a really good pace, Singh caught hold of a back-pass from Nanda Kumar and with a powerful left-footer netted the ball in the top left corner which helped the Indians walk away with the win at the end.
The Indian national football team has been really successful in recent times and a lot of credit for that goes to the coach Stephen Constantine for whom, this victory was the ninth in a row (the first eight wins came with the senior team).
But just when the Indian U-23 team is getting all ready for the next friendly match, Constantine says that, “there is no room for complacency.” In a telephonic conversation, the national coach said, “We will not be complacent.”
Referring to the first game where a single goal from Germanpreet Singh turned out to be the main difference between the two sides at the end he remarked, “In fact, we can’t afford it.”
The All India Football Federation in an attempt to help the U-23 team gain some proper match practice before the AFC U-23 Qualifiers in Doha, organised these two international friendlies.
India have been placed in Group C alongside Syria, hosts Qatar and Turkmenistan in the AFC U-23 Qualifiers which is scheduled to begin from the 19th of July.
Said the coach, “I will be looking to improve on our performance as much I am sure Singapore would be looking to improve on theirs.” But Constantine didn’t want his team to carry the tag of a, ‘dominant India.’
He also rued the missed chances in the first match as he said, “Yeah, we wasted a great deal of possession and scored from the only shot on target.” He further added, “We don’t have any injury concerns.”
Commenting on the Singapore U-23 side who are set to take on the Indian U-23 team on the 12th of July in the second friendly match, Constantine said, “I am not someone to comment on my rival Team but can say that Singapore have some skilful players in their squad who at times looked very good.”
After the match, they would fly to Doha on July 15 to start off their preparations for the AFC U-23 Qualifiers.