Sunil Chhetri on ‘Difficult’ Draw for Asian Cup: ‘Hope We Give Good Account of Ourselves’

Indian men’s football team will begin their preparations for the ‘difficult’ 2023 AFC Asian Cup, which will be played in Qatar in January next year, by hosting ‘strong competition’ for the Intercontinental Football Cup, scheduled to be held at Kalinga Stadium from June 9 to 18, followed by the SAFF Championship, in Bengaluru from 21 June to 4 July.

India will also take part in the Kings’ Cup in Thailand and Merdeka Cup in Malaysia, in the months of September and October respectively.

And Indian football legend Sunil Chhetri is looking forward to it.

India have been drawn alongside Australia, Uzbekistan and Syria in Group B, and Chhetri feels “Asia Cup is something that we always knew is going to be difficult.”

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“For a country like us to improve, we keep rubbing shoulders with the best in Asia. I just hope that we give ourselves every chance to go and give a good account of ourselves,” Chhetri told reporters in an interaction on Saturday.

When asked about the preparation, with talks of just two weeks being afforded in the middle of the Indian football’s domestic calendar, Chhetri said: “If we get three weeks that will be optimum. I’m pretty sure the ones who are making the calendar, it is difficult for them also, it is not only my opinion, a lot of think tanks who are in a better position than me are thinking about and yeah, the good thing is the goal of everyone who’s involved is to give as much time and as many facilities for the national team to do well.”

Chhetri said that even though India’s draw for the Asia Cup is more difficult than in the previous edition when they shocked Thailand in the opening match – only to go down to Bahrain and hosts UAE – his approach would be to make it difficult for their opponents to win.

“I think even when we met Thailand, UAE and Bahrain the last time it was always difficult. I think we had some good performances in some games, some moments. We weren’t that great in some moments,” Chhetri said.

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“You know, in modern football, a lot of teams who are underdogs have shown us that if you’re a good unit, you can make it difficult for the other teams to play against you and that’s our first and prime target. Yes, it does look a little bit more difficult than the last time but do not worry,” Chhetri added.

Starting with the Intercontinental Cup, India will take on Mongolia, Vanuatu and Lebanon and then go on to face Pakistan, Nepal and Kuwait in the SAFF Championships.

Chhetri said playing against the likes of Lebanon and Kuwait in the coming month will give India a fair idea of the level at which they need to perform at the Asian Cup.

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“We can get a feeling from when we played teams like Lebanon and Kuwait how serious it is going to be against Syria. Lebanon and Kuwait probably are going to give you a better understanding of Syria, with Uzbekistan being a level higher and Australia, who we know are one of the best in Asia.”

When asked about possibly playing nine games in the next 24 days, the 38-year-old Chhetri said: “I am preparing with a big smile. Games are important. Of course, training is important, enough rest between the games is important but at the end of the day, more matches is good for a team.”