Indian captain Sunil Chhetri rued that his team missed a lot of chances to score after they shared the spoils against Singapore. The match ended in a 1-1 draw at the Thống Nhất Stadium in Vietnam on Saturday. Ikhsan Fandi scored the opening goal for Singapore to give a lead to his team in the 37th minute.
However, the Blue Tigers bounced back stronger after Aashique Kuruniyan scored just before half-time to put his team level. Chhetri feels the team still has a lot to improve and they could have defended well.
“There are many things that we could have done better. We missed a lot of chances, and maybe we could have defended a little better. I’m sure the coach will have a talk with us about it. Without being too harsh on ourselves, there are a few things that we need to work on,” said Chhetri in the post-match interview.
On the other hand, Vietnam had thrashed Singapore by 4-0 in the opening match. Chhetri revealed that the team had analyzed after watching that match. India will now look to come up with a better performance against Vietnam, which is placed above them in the rankings.
“We have watched their [Vietnam’s] match against Singapore. They are really good, especially at home. They are one of the most improved sides in Asia in the last five years. We have to really go back to the drawing board and improve ourselves against Vietnam. We have to really work hard. It is not going to be the same (as Singapore),” the striker added.
Chhetri made no excuses regarding the drawn match and feels the weather conditions were nice too. The talisman promised a better show against Vietnam in the next match, which will be played on Tuesday.
“No excuses from our end about the weather. We were here two days ago, and I must say that the weather is a little different here, but it’s quite nice. The ground was great. A lot comes down to how we played and we need to do better,” he concluded.
