DOHA: Bangladesh football team coach Jamie Day lavished praise on India skipper Sunil Chhetri for grabbing chances with both hands on Monday.
India rode on Chhetri’s brace to beat Bangladesh 2-0 in the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, and AFC Asian Cup China 2023 preliminary joint round qualification at the Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium, Doha on Monday.
Chhetri broke the deadlock in the 78th minute when he headed in Ashique Kuruniyan’s cross from the left. He then sealed the game by curling in a shot from long range in added time, to win the match 2-0 for the Blue Tigers.
“For a long period, we did well, we had a couple of half-chances. But if you give Chhetri a chance, he scores like he showed tonight,” goal.com quoted Day as saying.
“He had two chances in the last 20 minutes, and he took them. So, we move on to the next game now and take positives out of that,” he added. The Bangladesh coach said his side gave the ball quite easily to Indian players which eventually had long-lasting repercussions on the match. “I thought for 80 minutes, we competed very well. The shape was nice and difficult to break down. You see the difference in quality between the players when they were in possession,” said Day.
“I think one of the disappointments was that we gave the ball away too much and gave possession back to India. “I think our players were fantastic. They work their socks off, give their best every day. We just couldn’t keep the ball and that shows in games where you give possession away too much. And if you do that against better teams and better players, then at some stage they’ll punish you,” he mentioned.
With this win, India moved to six points from seven matches, while Bangladesh are at two points from seven matches. India next play Afghanistan in their last group league match on June 15. (ANI)