India coach Stephen Constantine played down talks of his side’s Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Asian Cup Qualifiers draw being easy.

 
India have been clubbed with Kyrgyz Republic, Myanmar and Macau in Group A.

 
“On paper it looks favourable. It does give us the hope that we have a legitimate chance to qualify from the group,” Constantine.
 
“I need to take you back to the draw of the World Cup qualifiers where we were drawn with Guam and Turkmenistan and there was a generic feeling all around — ‘no problem, we will have it easy,'” Constantine said.

 
“Myanmar have made it to the final of the Suzuki Cup and on the back of qualifying on merit to the FIFA U-20 World Cup under their German coach, they are a very difficult team to play at home.”
 
Constantine explained why it won’t be smooth sailing for India, who have improved their ranking to 129.
 
Constantine said that the team will assemble in the second week of March to prepare for the Asian Cup qualifiers. India play their first match against Myanmar on March 28.
 
“The plan is to assemble on the weekend of March 11th or 12th as the players would start to assemble after their respective Hero I-League games. But there would be boys who would be involved in the AFC Cup and we will only have them available some days later.”
 
Asked whether India would be playing a friendly before the qualifiers, Constantine said, “Given that we are playing an away game first, we want to play an international friendly on our way to Myanmar. It would benefit us to have valuable match practice as the intensity of international football is different to domestic football.”
 
He added, “Let me reiterate, Myanmar won’t ever be an easy opposition away or even at home.”

Sindhu, Sameer, Sikki-Pranaav win titles at Syed Modi meet

Bumrah : Past performance in death overs gave me confidence

A 10-man India were upstaged 0-3 by a superior Iran and bowed out of the AFC U-16 Championship 2016 at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Delhi.

Mohammad Ghaderi (23rd minute) put Iran in the lead before the break while Mohammad Sharifi (82nd, 90+) converted a couple of penalties towards the end.

Courtesy Wednesday’s result, India finished on one point from three outings while Iran topped Group A with seven points from three matches to march into the quarter-finals.

India coach Nicolai Adam made two changes to the starting XI, Lalengmawia and Ninthoi replacing Aniket Jhadav and Aman Chetri respectively. But mispasses in the midfield didn’t help the hosts’ cause. The trapping at times was bad and the physically superior Iranians managed to win most of the second balls.

Even as both teams started on a cautious note, Iran were able to increase manpower in the final zone. The first goal came in the 23rd minute — a slippery Ghaderi sneaking in between the two Indian central defenders to blast it in after being fed by Amed Khodamoradi.

India’s sole chance in the first half came in the 17th minute. The rush of adrenalin forced Komal Thattal to go for glory after he had sped into the rival box. A back pass to Lalangmawia who was perfectly positioned to tap it in into a yawning goal could have given India the lead.

Changing over, Nicolai brought in his first substitution — Aniket coming in for Mohamad Rakip in the 46th minute. The first cross into the box by the hosts came in the 49th minute, but Iran goalkeeper Gholam Zadeh leapt above all to gather Ninthoi’s floater.

India suffered a jolt when they were down to 10-men — Boris was given marching orders after receiving his second yellow card in the 55th minute.

Ten minutes later Lalengmawia was replaced by Aman, as Nicolai went all out for the equaliser. The third substitution came in the 69th minute when Narender was put in place of Sarif Khan.

Iran, taking full advantage of their numerical superiority, were dominating by then and had not Indian goalkeeper Dheeraj Singh intervened on a couple of occasions, the scoreline could have been wider.

A 10-man India, nevertheless, laboured hard. But as it in the first half, and even in the entire championship, mispasses spoiled the counters. Iran looked composed with the support for each other in the midfield.

It eventually paid dividends as Iran scored from two penalties with Mohammad Sharifi converting a brace from the spot in the 82nd minute and then one in injury time.

IANS