India’s first win in the Igor Stimac era arrived against Thailand on Saturday after the Blue Tigers edged the War elephants 1-0 to claim the third spot in the King’s Cup.
The Croatian was happy with how the young team performed and promised that the team will produce the same type of organisation in the long run.
Stimac also pointed out that the team was better while in possession of the ball than they were against the same opposition in the Asian Cup, where India had won 4-1.
“We are happy about the way we played. We were organised on the pitch as well and I promise that I will be doing that in the future as well. I’m proud of the players. As you could see, we had so many young players in the team,” he said.
“Today, there was only one player who played against Thailand in the Asian Cup. So, it’s a massive change and the final result reflects exactly what I wanted. There is competition for every position on the pitch and that makes me very happy as a coach.
Next matches
Stimac has professed that he likes his team to keep hold of the ball and he feels the possession statistics show that his team did a better job in that regard than during the Asian Cup win over Thailand in January.
“In Asian Cup game, Thailand had 70 percent possession if I remember. I think in today’s game, until we scored the goal, we were the better team in possession. We were passing and moving better than Thailand.
“I changed a few things on purpose after we scored the goal. You can see that we can keep possession and move the ball around even against better team like against Curacao in the second half.”
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