India will play friendlies against Oman and UAE in the international window. Head coach Igor Stimac reiterates that the team’s main target is to qualify for the 2023 AFC Asian Cup, the remaining qualifiers for which will be played later this year.
Stimac stated that his team’s main target remains to qualify for the AFC Asian Cup 2023. The Blue Tigers are currently in the qualification phase of the campaign, where they are yet to play Qatar, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh.
Our target — from the beginning, has been to qualify for the AFC Asian Cup (2023). We have three games left in this stage of the Qualifiers. We are trying to provide enough time for the players to put in quality work before those games,
Stimac said, via a news release from the All India Football Federation.
India were a part of the competition during its previous cycle held in the United Arab Emirates in 2019. The Blue Tigers, coached then by Stephen Constantine, nearly made it out of the group stage but were denied the opportunity due to a devastating stoppage-time goal in their final group game against Bahrain. They ended up with three points from three matches – one behind Bahrain and Thailand and two behind hosts UAE. All the other three teams in their group made it through to the next round due to the competition format.
In the current cycle – which will culminate in the 2023 edition of the competition in China – India have already played five second-round qualification matches. The Blues Tigers have faced Oman twice, as well as Qatar, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan.
They are yet to win a match but did force the reigning Asian champions Qatar to a 0-0 draw. They are fourth in the table but are still eligible to qualify as the group runner-ups, should the other ties go in their favour. They do have a considerable points difference to make up with Oman presently on 12 compared to their 3.
The next batch of qualifiers will be played in June, with India facing Qatar for the return fixture first on June 3.
