India football head coach Igor Stimac stated that Blue Tigers played fearlessly in the second half despite losing to Curacao in the first match of King's Cup on Wednesday.
"I'm proud of the team achievement especially the manner we played in the second half. The young players who came on showed great character, and had no fear to come on the pitch and playing football," Igor Stimac said.
Stimac in a post-match press conference congratulated Curacao and appreciated the way they played and outclassed India. Playing to Curacao is a blessing for Indian players, they could feel the touch of European Academy players their movements and self-confidence also.
"Congratulations to Curacao. I had mentioned in the pre-match PC that they were the favourites and displayed in the first 45 minutes that they are of a different class. They have 6-7 top quality players. The match is a good blessing for our players. They could feel the touch of European Academy players among the Curacao players you can feel in their movements and self-confidence," Stimac added.
According to Stimac, India had 5-6 chances in the second half to bounce back in the game and put pressure on the opponent in last 10 minutes.
"I think we had 5-6 good situations in the second half to score our second goal and come back, and put some pressure on them in the last 10 minutes. But the decision making was not good in the final third," Stimac said.
Stimac further added that we were not doing the right things as required and there is a long way ahead to learn things and learning is a long process.
"For example, where we were supposed to shoot the ball, we were passing; and when we were supposed to pass the ball, we were shooting. There is a long way for us to keep learning the learning process will be long," he declared.
India will play either against Thailand or Vietnam for the third-place play-off on June 8.
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