The Indian football team come into the home leg of the 2019 AFC Asia Cup with a slender advantage after a closely fought 1-0 victory in the away leg over Laos in Vientiane on 1 June. The second leg is scheduled to be held at the Indira Gandhi Stadium in Guwahati on 7 June. If India are to qualify over Laos, they will have to put up a much better display than they did in the first round against Laos.
Inspite of dominating possession throughout the game, the Blue Tigers struggled to create goalscoring opportunities throughout the game and looked desperately short of ideas. Laos, despite being ranked 174th in the FIFA rankings, looked to have a better passing range than the higher ranked Indians who just seemed to hoof the ball across the field when their passing did not work out.
Star striker Jeje Lalpekhlua continued his streak of fine form, scoring India’s solitary goal but coach Stephen Constantine will be looking for ways to ensure that the striker is well supported in the second leg after being isolated up front on his own in the
Although India have an advantage coming into this game, Stephen Constantine refused to take Laos lightly. He said, “I wouldn't say that they are a bad team. They worked very hard when they were at home. We expected that. I heard someone saying that I help to build the morale of other teams when I speak because I am respectful."
Also read: Laos vs India 0-1, Match Report
He added that the earlier result would have no bearing on how the team would perform in this leg of the tie. Constantine said, “We won 1-0 there. It's 0-0 as far as I am concerned. It's finished. We are not looking at that. We are looking to win this game and if we play our game, we will. We need to focus. We can't go in there thinking 'It's 1-0, they are not that good.' That's not how I do things here and I will always try to find the positives in the teams that we are playing because we cannot afford to be complacent and take anybody lightly.”
Sunil Chhetri is again expected to be the mainstay of the Indian attack, linking play with the midfield and trying to release Jeje Lalpekhlua in goalscoring positions. Eugeneson Lyngdoh is expected to partner Mohammed Rafique in midfield with Pronay Halder and Rowlin Borges being sidelined due to injury. Sandesh Jhinghan and Arnab Mondal are likely to continue in the center of defence along with Gurpreet Sigh Sandhu, who kept a clean sheet in the first leg.
Also read: India vs Laos: Sunil Chhetri wants to win it for the fans
Laos will be missing highly rated 17-year old forward, Maitee, who was a big threat in the first game. Maitee has not travelled to India with the rest of the squad as he is nursing an injury. The Laos coach said, “The problem with him is that he has been injured quite a bit. We have a player who can play in his position too. He is still young and his decision making sometimes results in injury.”
He added, “As you know we lost 0-1 in the first leg. We have an opportunity now to win. We will look to play our football and make use of our opportunities.”
A win or draw will take India into the third round of the AFC Asia Cup qualifiers where 24 teams will be fighting it out for the 12 available spots in the Asia Cup.
India vs Laos 2019 AFC ASIA Cup qualifier: Live Telecast details
Kickoff time: 7:00 PM IST
Live telecast: DD Sports
Live Streaming: AIFF Website
Venue: Guwahati
