International friendlies – Bahrain vs India: The Indian national team in preparation for the 3rd of the AFC Asian Cup qualifiers will compete in 2 friendlies. The first of which took place last night against Bahrain at Arad, Bahrain.
The squad chosen for the friendlies featured a bunch of youngsters who were impressive in the ISL. They were chosen as a result of several experienced players resting following the ISL.
The contest witnessed five players making their debuts for the Indian national team. Among which Suhail and Farooq made the starting line up while Ali, Jadhav and Singh made it off the bench.
The hosts were clearly the better side on the night, having led at halftime. However, the Blue Tigers did make the contest competitive, by scoring the equaliser through Bheke’s first international goal.
Gurpreet Singh Sandhu saved a penalty to deny Humaidan from getting on the score sheet. However, he did come back to haunt the Indians by getting the winner in the 88th minute.
International friendlies – Bahrain vs India: Match Report
Full-time Score: Bahrain 2-1 India
Bahrain Starting XI: Sayed Mohammed Jaffer (GK), Mohammed Al-Hardan, Kamil Al Aswad. Mahdi Humaidan, Mohamed Marhoon, Mahdi Abdul-Jabbar, Walid Al-Hayyam, Amin bin Udai, Sayed Redha Issa, Abdullah Al-Hazza, Jassim Sheikh.
Subs: Madan, Al Hashash, Haram, Al Sheikh, Al Malood.
Scorers: Mohammed Al-Hardan, Mahdi Humaidan.
India Starting XI: Gurpreet Singh Sandhu (GK), Rahuk Bheke, Subhasish Bose, Sandesh Jhingan, Pritam Kotal, Pronay Halder, Danish Farooq, Manvir Singh, Liston Colaco, VP Suhair, Rahim Ali.
Subs: Ali, Jadhav, Thapa, Yasir.
Bookings: Sandesh Jhingan, Rahim Ali.
Scorer: Rahul Bheke.
Pre-match Press conference
Indian head coach Igor Štimac: “Remembering the game against Bahrain – that’s not something I want to see here tomorrow.
“I want to see our team going out on the pitch, brave, with a positive attitude, concentrating on the attack. We are going to play middle press and high-press. We’re going to take certain risks in the intention to play more, attack more.
“This ISL season has been extremely exciting and we’ve seen some new faces. We’re going to give chance to those boys and see how they can do at the international level against stronger opposition and if we can count on them for the upcoming qualifier.
“As you know the goalkeeping position is very important for us and for such important matches, we stick with the goalkeeper, No.1, which is Gurpreet.
“Nevermind he didn’t have a very successful season with the club or on a personal level, but he has been training for the last 11-12 days with the goalkeeping coach and the team. Gurpreet is, by my and our staff, the best goalkeeper we have in the country, and I’m not a favourite of changing that position often or without any need.
“Of course, we’ve Manvir here, Rahim Ali, Suhair, Liston and other boys, but most of all, the whole team needs to replace Sunil and his goals. We want players to show up and take responsibility and forget about Sunil at the moment. He will join us for the upcoming camp.
“After two initial weeks (thereafter), we’re going to go somewhere to play a few friendly games which are in negotiations and my plan is to play the last friendly game in the last week of May, just prior to the qualifiers, with the venues probably being Kolkata or Doha, Qatar,”
