On Thursday, 6 June, Indian Head Coach Igor Stimac disclosed that the team's primary focus wasn't solely on Sunil Chhetri's farewell match against Kuwait. Instead, they regarded it as a pivotal fixture in the context of the 2026 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers.
Following the goalless draw against Kuwait in the FIFA World Cup Qualifier and AFC Asian Cup 2027 joint qualification, Stimac emphasised during the press conference that every member of the team, including the coaching staff, was wholly concentrated on the outcome of this crucial match.
With regards to everything we were all trying not to think about this farewell as much as possible because the result also was very important for Sunil. He was not thinking about his last minutes on the pitch for the national team, not a single player or staff member we were focused on the game what needs to be done how we need to approach the game what are the situations you will see.Igor Stimac
We have prepared a situation with three in the back forcing more forward players in the late stages of the game trying to gain some opportunities at the end and doing really well everything was in our capacity at the moment but things don't go your way always as you wanted now we can we can feel how much we missed with beating Afghanistan you know that's now very visible how much it's important for for this team to be together to spend time together and to make sure that we are on top of our game against the these things when were we all expected to gain the points.Igor Stimac
Speaking about the outcome of the game, the head coach expressed his disappointment, acknowledging that Kuwait displayed greater confidence in their approach.
Obviously disappointed with the result. Game was tough as we expected as any of the games against Kuwait. They're always I would say realistic tonight, they opened the game much better, with much more confidence.Igor Stimac
Stimac also noted that India's primary challenge was their passing speed, which he reckoned was insufficient for the Blue Tigers.
More confidence in passing in speed or passing moving, it took us some time to get up to start passing the ball and moving into areas that we will create danger. And I will say that the general passing speed was the biggest struggle we had tonight, that was not good enough to break down the team.Igor Stimac
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