Kolkata. The Indian team will go on to register a big win against low ranked Cambodia on Wednesday in an exercise to make it to the 5th time AFC (Asian Football Confederation) Asian Cup finals. Under the captaincy of charismatic striker Sunil Chhetri, India will try to make a great start to its campaign. Chhetri will try to score his 80th goal in this match. Cristiano Ronaldo (117 goals in 188 matches) and Leonal Messi (86 goals in 162 matches) are being scored Danadan goals. No one can be compared to these two, but Chhetri will have a chance to overtake Messi in this tournament.
The Indian team is currently ranked 106th in the world rankings while Cambodia is at 171st position below 65 places. Apart from these two teams in Group D, Afghanistan (150) and Hong Kong (147) are included. In such Sunil Chhetri There will be opportunities to score goals. Chhetri is at the end of his career and qualifying for the Asian Cup will be special for this 37 -year -old captain. Due to the withdrawal of China, the next Asian Cup will be in the end of 2023 or 2024 and in such a situation, Chhetri can consider it a 'last fort' of his magnificent career.
See also, Sunil Chhetri said- I am playing my last match, FIFA banned…
Chhetri clarified the intentions before his 126th match and said, 'I want to qualify. If I do not stay there, then my country will be. Either I will see Udanta running while drinking beer or you will be drinking beer and I will run there. India's performance was not favorable before the qualifying matches of this continental competition. He had to face defeat in all the 3 international friendship matches he played earlier. In the first match of Afghanistan Group D will take on Hong Kong from 4:30 pm, after which India and Cambodia will be played from 8.30 pm.
Not only this, he lost 1-2 to the Indian Super League team ATK Mohun Bagan while he defeated the I League All Stars team 2–1 but Santosh Trophy's runner-up Bengal stopped him 1-1.
The Indian team won their last match at the international level more than 7 months ago when it defeated Nepal 3–0 in the final of Saif Championship on 16 October 2021. The recent results were very disappointing for the team with coaching Igor Stimak. Chhetri has warned his colleagues that if they are unable to perform well against Cambodia, then half the battle will be lost here.
Chhetri said, 'We are playing the first match with them. If we do not perform well against Cambodia, it means you have lost half your battle. As of now, we are only thinking about Cambodia, watching as many videos as possible. Once we play this match, then we will think about Afghanistan. Of course, Afghanistan is also strong.
Rahim Ali has been the biggest blow for coach Stimak in recent times, who started attacking the front line with Chhetri. As soon as he started filling the location of JJ Lalpekhula, he had to be out due to muscle stretch. ATK Mohun Bagan, a hat -trick in the AFC Cup, may give some options for Forward Liston Kolaso, Manveer Singh and Udanta Singh, but it is difficult to compete with Ali's ball control and accurate passing. It will be interesting to see how Chhetri deal with it because they want to qualify for the fifth Asian Cup.
