Coach angry as Iran deny India chance to train at main stadium

India's national football team coach Stephen Constantine expressed his displeasure at the Iran Football Federation not extending the courtesy of letting the visiting team train at the main stadium ahead of the FIFA World Cup qualifier on Thursday.
The minnows landed in the Iranian capital yesterday evening for their penultimate match against the Asian heavyweights. India are currently last in their group and will have one home match against Turkmenistan on March 29 left after the Iran game.
However Constantine's boys have not been provided with an opportunity to train at the Azadi Stadium, where the match is supposed to be held.

"When Iran came over to Bengaluru, we allowed them to train at the match venue for two days expecting that we would receive the same treatment. When you extend courtesies, you would always like to be repaid, no matter what," a dejected Constantine told aiff.Com.
"But to our surprise we are being denied to train at the match venue (the Azadi Stadium) for two days. It was understandable that we would also be training at the match venue for two days simply because we had allowed the Iranian National Team to train at the venue for two days," the disappointment was palpable in his voice.

Iran comfortably thrashed India 3-0 in the Bengaluru leg and are likely to double the scoreline in familiar home conditions which can be adverse for the visitors considering it is cold.

Also the fact that they will be missing their star striker Sunil Chhteri. Goalkeeper Gurpreet Sandhu has joined the squad directly in Tehran from Norway, where he plays club football.
"Yeah, the temperatures here are much cooler than what we had in Delhi. We need to settle down fast," Constantine said.
While being denied a chance to train on the main turf left a sour taste, the Indian contingent is happy with the other arrangements.

Two minutes after resumption, Chhetri had a snapshot from the edge of the box and the Cambodian goalie used his body to block it before a timely clearance by a defender.
The Indians did not have to wait for long for the lead as Jeje made his presence felt four minutes after coming in at the breather. It was a lovely bit of play from Jackichand Singh who ran past two players before sending a beautiful cross. Jeje made no mistake as he hit it past the advancing Cambodian goalie, with the ball hitting the post and going in
Three minutes later, Jhingan made the scoreline 3-1 with the goal also coming off a corner. An unmarked Jhingan rose highest to connect another Eugeneson corner to hand India a two-goal cushion.

The momentum had completely shifted towards India in the second session and the counter attacks the Cambodians had in the first session were not coming.
But the home side were still able to pull one back with Vathanaka finding the Indian net in the 62nd minute. He picked up the ball outside the box and let loose a shot which beat Gurpreet all ends up.
(REOPENS SPF14)
Constantine expressed happiness at the win but said that his boys need to start quicker in an international match.
"Every time you play for the national team, you want to win. Results matter and it is nice to continue the winning streak," he said after the match.

"Winning away from home has been our strength and the fact that we won our first away international friendly after June 2005 makes it all the sweeter. We had some good moments in the match and the boys need to get used to playing with each other," he stated.
"We need to start quicker. It is a must in international football. We have a habit of taking it a bit lightly and starting the game slowly. We can't afford to do that. If you do that, you bring your own downfall," he maintained.
"At the end of day, it's a win and I am very happy for the boys and all who have been involved in the process. But there is no place to go over the moon. We have a sterner test next week, an acid test in fact," he said referring to the AFC Asian Cup Qualifiers match against Myanmar in Yangon on March 28.