Stephen Constantine has spoken of giving opportunities to youngsters to create a bigger pool of talent. (Source: AP)
Indian football coach Stephen Constantine has expressed happiness after the win over Mauritius. However, he is not the one who wants to live on past glory and emphasized that India’s nine-match winning streak will count for nothing if they fail to qualify for the Asian Cup.
“It (nine wins on the trot) makes nothing if we don’t qualify for the Asian Cup, that’s what it means. I am proud to have made this little bit of history but if I don’t qualify for the Asian Cup, what’s the use of nine wins in a row, or 10 or 11 or 12,” he told reporters here last night.
“Records are there and they are nice. It is important to win, we want to win to continue to win, but our focus is 1000 percent on Macau. We need to get something in that game (against Macau), bring home and finish it (qualify),”.
Commenting on the match Constantine analyzed and said India was more dominant in the second half.
“Ok, not happy, happy but, I am ok. I have seen Mauritius, I knew they were going to play like this and they perhaps could have played a little bit better. We didn’t do what we normally do, gave them too much respect. We conceded the goal which they deserved, we were fortunate to get the equaliser, we made few change in the second half and we dominated it,” he added.
He further added, “I did not like the way we played the first half, I don’t like when we give other team the headstart, we are not the kind of team when we give other team one goal lead and we can play and another day gets punished. In the break, I told the boys to buck up in a polite way and they did,” he said.
Praising Sandesh Jhinghan, he said “He is someone who should be playing in a bigger league. The captain has to reflect the character of the coach, Sandesh is a fighter just like me. He leads by example and I think when Sunil (Chettri) is ready to packing in, we have one more person who can be captain,” he added.
Meanwhile, Mauritian skipper Kevin Bru also praised the men in blue and said, “Well done India, I am happy with my teammates as we played good football.”
