SAFF Championship 2013: Nepal deserved to win – Wim Koevermans

Wim Koevermans (R) confirmed that captain Sunil Chhetri will miss the semi-finals

Indian football reached a new low on Thursday as the senior team suffered their first defeat in a SAFF Championship group stage match since 2003. Following the unconvincing displays in the first two games, India failed to raise their game against hosts Nepal in front of a crowd of more than 22,000 at Kathmandu’s Dasarath Stadium and lost 2-1.

Wim Koevermans refused to criticise his players and instead focused on giving credit to the hosts, who progressed to the semi-finals as group A winners.

“Full compliments to Nepal. They deserve the result. It wasn’t easy to play in front of their fans as we didn’t create enough chances and then conceded a bad goal. We scored a nice goal in the end but it wasn’t enough to avoid defeat. However thankfully we can look forward to the semi-finals,” said Koevermans.

The Dutchman was questioned further by travelling Indian journalists on India’s below par performances so far at the SAFF Championships, but the Euro 1988 winner once again played down the criticism.

“I know you all (the media) will make this loss dramatic but I won’t as I have to prepare the team for the semi-finals which won’t be easy as we have been playing every two days and some players have a few niggles. We have to recharge our batteries quickly,” the 53-year-old stated.

The Indian team management was unable to confirm after the game whether skipper and talisman Sunil Chhetri would be available for the semi-finals as he picked up two yellow cards in the group stage. At the post-match press conference though Koevermans conceded that he will be without his captain and admitted it would be a blow.

“Yes we will miss him of course, two yellows means he won’t be available I believe. We made some changes today and will have to make some adjustments again for the semis,” he concluded.