India national football team coach Igor Stimac was livid with his side’s performance after they registered a 0-0 draw against Kuwait in the FIFA World Cup 2026 qualifiers on Thursday in Kolkata. A win would have almost guaranteed a place in the third round of qualifiers for the first time but the draw means virtual elimination unless India earn at least one point against Asian champions Qatar in their last group match.
Against Kuwait, India faced familiar problems like starting slowly and failing to take control of the match and Stimac blasted his players for the poor start they made to a crucial match at home.
“We are disappointed with the result. The game was tough, as we expected. The draw is realistic tonight, they opened the game much better and with more confidence, in terms of passing, speed of passing and moving. It took us some time to gear up and start passing the ball into the danger zones, the general passing speed was our biggest problem tonight, it wasn’t good enough," Stimac said in the post-match press conference.
“Even in certain moments when we put pressure on them, there was no delivery to help the forwards. They have lots of individual qualities and they were killing the game with time-wasting whenever they could. The weather conditions didn’t help as they knew when to stop the game and they wasted 17-18 minutes with medical help and time-wasting. But, that is football. That’s not the reason we didn’t win, we weren’t clinical in front of the goal and our best player tonight was Gurpreet (Singh Sandhu), which isn’t good. It’s fantastic to have such a goalkeeper here, who we never doubted.
“We know what he can do and how much he can help the team tonight.”
‘Sad for Sunil’
Stimac regretted that India were unable to win in captain Sunil Chhetri’s farewell match but quickly turned the focus on the Qatar game.
“Sad for Sunil, really sad that he didn’t go out with a win, but we don’t have time to feel sorry for ourselves as we are still alive.
“I need to do everything in the next five days to make the boys believe, make them create an environment of belief. We have a small hope and we need to believe and trust in ourselves and give our best shot to win the game.”
‘Need to finish chances against Qatar’
On the challenges that Qatar will pose, Stimac said: “Every game is a challenge for us. We don’t have easy games. We are not the team who can say we have easy games ahead of us. But, I feel that the game against a stronger but younger opponent gives us the chance to play a counter-attacking game with a good middle block and we hope to finish chances clinically.
“I hope we don’t give away easy chances. Because if that happens against Qatar we don’t stand a chance because they will be clinical.”
Qatar have not picked a host of star players in their squad for the latest round of qualifiers.
Did Chhetri’s retirement distract the team?
Stimac was unequivocal in stressing that the team was not thinking about Chhetri’s retirement and that the focus was only on the Kuwait match.
“We were all trying not to think about Sunil’s farewell as much as possible because the result was important for Sunil as well. He was not thinking about his last minutes on the pitch for the national team, not a single player or staff member. We were focused on the game, on what needs to be done, how we need to approach the game, and what are the situations.
“We looked at how we could approach the game, as we played with three at the back and more forward players in the late stages to gain more opportunities at the end and do everything in our capacity to win.
“Now, we can understand how much we miss beating Afghanistan. We can now see how important it is that we are on top of our game and win points in the games we are expected to gain points from.
“Kuwait started well and our weaknesses which were visible against Afghanistan, where we also handled the long balls poorly, were exploited. We weren’t decisive or aggressive enough to put the striker in the stranded situation, we were late in decision-making and they handled the situation very well. In the later stages, we started moving well and positioning ourselves better.
“We need to work on these situations with our players. These international games are much different than what we see in the ISL, there is more quality and more technicality than the ISL. It’s visible that Kuwait were coming fresh from a competition situation because their league was going on until the end of May. They had a short camp but you could see that their legs were going very well.”
Need to be faster with the ball
The coach believed that Indian players weren’t sharp enough against Kuwait.
“How we opened the game, was a matter of self-confidence. I would say that we were holding the ball for too long whenever we received the ball back from our goalkeeper.
“We’ve been training nearly every training session to keep passing quickly from one side to another to open the gaps and to use our wingers in between the gaps. But that didn’t happen. We were just waiting, waiting, waiting, not even coming with the ball driving when there was also space in front of us. So that needs to be better.
India must be more clinical
Stimac rued the fact that India failed to take their chances.
“We created 2-3 good chances from our corners and free-kicks from distance. But, even that needs to be better. We got chances but did not put the ball into the net.
“We had enough chance to win the game, the best one came to Rahim Ali who made a fantastic run and Brandon (Fernandes) was there to make a fantastic pass to bring him in front of the goalkeeper. Whatever Rahim did in training brilliantly didn’t happen tonight and that’s what makes the difference.”
Will David Lalhlansanga play against Qatar?
Stimac confirmed he will be in the squad.
“David will be in the 23-man squad for the next game. We need to see the screening and who is available for us. It was nice to see Edmund (Lalrindika) playing tonight and show we have talented boys in the I-League which we must take care of.
“He will be a valuable asset for the national team in the future. Now, it’s upon David to show himself, but the result is also important. I need to know how I can balance the team, to see the fresh legs and play with composure and pick a team that can hurt Qatar.”
Why Jeakson Singh or Naorem Mahesh Singh didn’t play?
Stimac cleared how the decision was made.
“That was my decision. We could choose between (Lallianzuala) Chhangte, Liston (Colaco) and Manvir (Singh) and the decision was for Manvir to come on because Chhangte can help us much better against three centre-backs to cover a 100-metre pitch.
“Mahesh is more of a player for the final third, I don’t think we made any substitution mistakes because all the substitutes did several good things and I have no complaints about that. Mahesh will probably get minutes against Qatar and help us win the game.”
Praise for Jay Gupta
The coach also praised FC Goa defender Jay Gupta who made his India debut against Kuwait at left-back position.
“I think Jay did a great job for us tonight. That is another debut for the national team, but he’s a little bit timid. Gurpreet can confirm how good he was in the training games, he was hammering everyone, going up and down and scoring and assisting.
“Of course, a game like this is different, but there was nothing wrong about him tonight. He did everything he needed to, defending well and positioning himself well. He’s a player who can give us the energy that we need going forward. We have various options with Jay Gupta, if we want to play three or four at the back. We need to be patient for him to get more experience and Subhasish (Bose) is there to push him too. There’s a good competition on the left side.”
Coach slams Sahal Abdul Samad and Anirduh Thapa
Stimac wasn’t happy with midfielders Shaal and Thapa’s performance and explained why the duo was taken off at halftime.
“When you don’t win the game and aren’t happy with the result, how can you say that some players impressed you?
‘We need to be better, some were good but many things tonight were not where we wanted to be. You could see that we couldn’t start dominating the game in the middle even if we started with Sahal and Thapa. I expected much more from them in the first half.
“But, Sahal didn’t play in the final stages and has been injured for long. He was covering lots of ground, his defensive work was fantastic and he looked nice with Sunil. But, I needed Sahal to be a playmaker to create chances and also put in defensive work.
“Thapa has got enough experience to adapt to whatever situation expects him to. I expect more from them as they have enough experience to do so.”
Stimac’s message to Indian fans
The former Croatia coach urged the Indian fans to keep faith in him and the Blue Tigers.
“Huge appreciation for the fans, for their support. We need to believe in our team and in our ability in what is possible. We have a young team and in five days it might be like India U-23 vs Qatar U-23 in terms of how young the players are. I expect a lot from my team for this upcoming game.”
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