U-20 football team showing has made Indian fans proud: Pinto

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Harpal Singh Bedi/ New Delhi

Under-20 coach Floyd Pinto today described his team’s 2-1 win over Argentina in the COTIF Cup in Spain, as memorable saying it made every Indian fan proud

Speaking after the return of the team in the capital, Pinto said “Every Indian should feel proud of the win adding that one should also remember that boys put up another determined display to hold U-20 World Cup runners-up Venezuela to a goalless draw,”

“The boys had put up a great performance against Venezuela and after that match I said that they must raise the bar against Argentina .The boys were extremely organised and focused. We got the goals at the right moments and the result was there for everyone to see,” he said..

“It was a great experience for us and I’m really happy that the team improved as the tournament progressed. I would like to thank AIFF and SAI for providing the boys with such an opportunity,” the coach opined.

Recalling the match captain Amarjit Singh admitted that there was bit of panic in the team after Aniket Jadhav got the marching orders in the second-half . “We went one man down, we got into a tizzy. Then came the strike from Anwar and thankfully, we did it till the end,”

” We were never in a mood to just sit back and defend. We were also up there to show our worth against the mighty Argentine side,” he added

Central defender Anwar Ali disclosed that there was no mystery behind the free-kick and it is something where he always puts an extra effort during the sessions.”Scoring against Argentina was something amazing. I’ll always cherish that. I always love to hit the target from free-kicks and do practice during practice,”

“The most important part of the free-kick was that it earned us a win. Otherwise, it would have carried little significance and no one would have remembered it either.”

Centre-back Jitendra Singh maintained that it was a “collective effort.””Not only did we work hard. We had to work collectively to get the job done. It was a great learning experience for us,”

Aniket Yadav talked about out the dressing room. “We were very much motivated before the game and there was a positive vibe in the dressing room,” .while Sahil Panwar was of the view that “A win against Argentina will always be a memorable one and thankfully, I was part of this.”