Coach Constantine and Chhetri urge players to stay grounded

ABUDHABI: Moments after India’s stunning 4-1 win over Thailand at the Al Nahyan Stadium here on Sunday, India captain Sunil Chhetri called on his team to maintain focus and continue in the same vein in their remaining group games. “I can think about my goals some ten years later. At the moment, we need to focus. The goals need to come and it just doesn’t matter who scores,” he said after the game.

After the game, Chhetri said, “You can see the jubilation and happiness whenever someone scores. I am so happy for the boys. Every one of them ran and defended with their lives.”

The Bengaluru FC skipper hailed the character of the team after their first win in the tournament since the 1964 edition. “It’s a tough pool. We felt that all the others were more experienced and better than us. But the manner the boys fought, it shows a lot of character. I have said this before, we are a very difficult team to play against,” he said.

“We may not be the most technical team but we will fight till the end, and that’s what the boys showed,” Chhetri added.

Head coach Stephen Constantine asked this players to not get carried away, reminding them that knockout qualification was yet to be sealed. “We try to win every match that we play in. We don’t go into a match expecting to win 4-1 or 5-1. However, we are not trying to get carried away with the emotion,” he said.

“We still have two games left and we still need another two points to qualify from the group stages. After we have qualified, we can get a little bit excited but our primary job is still to qualify out of the group stages.”