Indian head coach Igor Stimac, after the narrow 0-1 defeat to Oman in Muscat, pronounced that he wants his team to “play without fear” against any opponent they face.
“I want my India (team) to play without fear against anyone. Irrespective of whoever you are playing against, you always have a chance to win the game. We need to grab that,” Stimac stated in the post-match press conference in Muscat on Tuesday.
He added, “If you are trying to change (your gameplan) according to your opponents, it shows your team’s weakness — which is the last thing I would want for my team. We stick to our system and we are working on the players’ strengths and conditioning.”
The coach stated that India was the better team in the second half and while they have been doing good work in open play and creating opportunities to score, the lack of accuracy in the finishing is a problem they are facing.
“We were the better side in the second half but couldn’t find the way to score a goal. This is our main problem which has been haunting us always. We are moving well, we are fighting, we are doing what’s necessary but when we come inside the box, the decision making is not at par and the accuracy is not there as well. We need to get used to this, cut the numbers of mistakes down and try to get better results in the future,” he said.
The Croatian also congratulated the hosts on their win and added that his team has shown that they can compete against the likes of Oman.