Sunil Chhetri once asked Indian fans for more support.
Tickets to their next match vs Kenya sold out almost immediately. Fans went crazy for him, and he scored a brace in a 3-0 win.
On Monday, he scored his 74th career goal for his nation
Sunil Chhetri stats vs Bangladesh:
➢ 90 Minutes played
➢ 2 Goals
➢ 2 Shots on target
➢ 50 Touches
➢ 32/39 Passes
➢ 2 Key passes
➢ 2/3 Aerial duels
➢ 1 Big chance missed
Gurpreet (7) Sana (8) Jhingan (7.5) Subhasish (6.5) Udanta (6) Suresh (7) Glan (7.5) Brandon (8) Bipin (6) Chhetri (8.5)Manvir (6).
Yasir (6.5) Ashique (7) Liston (6.5) Adil (UR) Pranoy (UR).
Igor Stimac: The players did everything they could to get the win. So, all the credit to them for executing the game plan perfectly.
Igor Stimac: Even if we didn’t get a single point here out of 3 games, all I asked from my boys to do well and represent the country disciplined, together as a team. If we were going to lose a game, we would lose it as a team.
Indeed an encouraging and confidence booster win for the team and Indian football.
Hope to see a winning performance in the next match against Afghanistan.
Each international game counts and each win takes us closer to our collective dream of making into the World Cup 32 teams one day.
103 - Cristiano Ronaldo
74 - Sunil Chhetri
73 - Ali Mabkhout
72 - Lionel Messi
66 - Robert Lewandowski
65 - Neymar
63 - Luis Suarez
62 - Zlatan Ibrahimovic
60 - Romelu Lukaku
Chhetri leads Barcelona star Messi by two goals and sits a place above Ali Mabkhout of the UAE, who is third on the list with 73 strikes to his name. Messi scored his 72nd international goal in a World Cup qualifier against Chile last Thursday, while Mabkhout added to his tally against Malaysia, also last week.
Players in bold are still active at international level.
Players in italics also hold the record for most caps for their nation.
Sunil Chhetri: There’s no comparison between me and Messi. There are thousands of players better than me. I’m proud that I have played 100 games for India and scored for 70+ goals.
Sunil Chhetri: The day I stop enjoying the game, I will stop. If there was no hunger, I wouldn’t be here. When I started to play, the boys were born; and the day I don’t enjoy it, I will stop.
Sunil Chhetri: We played against Qatar with ten men. They scored with a shuffle and they didn’t get any proper chance.
Sunil Chhetri: You see Glan and Suresh, that’s the kind of energy you want to take. They did make mistakes with their passing but their energy of coming, going, fighting, talking and listening that all you need as a team.
The Indian football team will look to end their 2022 World Cup qualifying campaign on a high against Afghanistan in Doha and secure third spot in Group E that will take them directly to the third round of 2023 AFC Asian Cup qualifiers.
India, who occupy third place in the table, are too far behind the top-two placed Qatar and Oman and hence will have to aim for the next best outcome from the qualifiers which is direct qualification for the next edition of the continental showpiece.
Matches won
6
1
Draw: 2
Form:
L D L L W
L W D D L
Previous encounter:
1-1
Nov 2019
FIFA Rankings: (May 27)
105
149
Afghanistan’s results tell about their form which is similar to India’s. Can India beat Afghanistan to secure their place at third position in the group?