SAFF Championship 2013: We have to play five finals – India coach Wim Koevermans

India coach Wim Koevermans has called on his players to treat every match as a final and respect every opponent if they want to retain the title.

The six-time record champions open their campaign against arch-rivals Pakistan on Sunday and the Dutchman believes they have to approach the game as if its their last.

“We have to treat each and every team with the same amount of respect. If we want to win the title, we will have to win five finals starting from Sunday (against Pakistan). There is of course a lot of pressure on us as everybody expects us to win and every team wants to beat India but we are ready for the challenge,” Koevermans stated.

There has been a lot of criticism in the Indian media about the national team’s preparation for the SAFF Championship as they only played one international friendly and had a preparatory camp on an artificial turf although all matches at SAFF 2013 will be played on natural surface. The Euro 1988 winner, though, is satisfied with the team’s preparations.

“I think the preparation has been fine. We were always aware that players would be just coming from pre-season and it was exactly the same case last year in the Nehru Cup. Hopefully we will achieve a similar outcome in this tournament also,” the 53-year-old said.

Koevermans, however, admitted that the tournament schedule is physically very demanding as almost each team has to play three matches in five days in the group stage.

“It will be very difficult because we have to play every other day and are only allowed 20 players in the squad so it won’t be easy to recover from injuries,” he said.