India’s football head coach Igor Stimac believes a draw against Afghanistan was as good as a loss for them. The Blue Tigers played a goalless draw against Afghanistan in the FIFA World Cup 2026 and AFC Asian Cup 2027 Preliminary Joint Qualification Round 2 game at Abha.
India will once again take on the Afghans but this time at their home venue of Indira Gandhi Athletic Stadium, Guwahati on Tuesday, and Stimac is hopeful of turning the tables in this crucial game.
The Croatian said that they are positive and they will look to come up with a collective effort.
“We are positive. We are looking forward to tomorrow’s game (on Tuesday) and we are going to try to do our best. A draw is the same as a loss for us. A draw or loss here will mean that we will need to beat Kuwait here in June. If we win the game, that means that a draw will be enough against Kuwait (to move to the third round). We will try to do our best to make it easy for ourselves in June but I promised already and told you already that we will take India together to the third round of the qualifiers,” Stimac stated in the pre-match press conference.
The gaffer was disappointed after they shared the spoils with Afghanistan but he doesn’t want to point fingers at his players.
“We were disappointed with the end result against Afghanistan in the first game (in Saudi Arabia). Obviously, I couldn’t be happy with the performance but realistically it’s much difficult to expect our boys to shine after three days of work and such a long travel. I don’t blame anyone. We need to make things right here and that’s what we are going to try to do. How it’s going to work, we are going to see. We will do our best, definitely,” he expressed.
He added: “What I say to my players is that nothing ends with tomorrow’s game (on Tuesday) because we are in a really good position, holding the second spot in the group, which will take us to the third round of the qualifiers. Tomorrow’s result will change nothing about that. The final date will come in June against Kuwait, most probably, the game which will be played in Kolkata.”
Stimac admitted Afghanistan came up with a solid performance to keep them at bay at Abha and gave credit to the opposition for organizing a long camp before the all-important game.
“You could clearly see in the first game (in Saudi Arabia) that the Afghanistan team was not the team which played against Qatar and Kuwait. That was a far better team (which we played against). They had a long camp in Abha. A three-week camp, prior to our game. They were working on the things, preparing the things and waiting for us there. That’s what a long camp can change in one team. Ranking means nothing, as I mentioned many times. You will remember how good we handled Australia for 60 minutes and then received one silly goal which opened the score and also made it easy for Australia. It’s a clear sign that rankings are not helping you on the pitch when you need to get the win,” Stimac said.
