Akhil Rawat
AIFF Media Team

PATHUM THANI, THAILAND: The 0-2 loss against Thailand was somewhat of a bitter pill to swallow for the Blue Tigers at the Thammasat Stadium on Wednesday, June 4, 2025. The show, however, must go on.

Regardless of the result against Thailand, the Blue Tigers now shift their focus to the task at hand in their AFC Asian Cup Saudi Arabia 2027 Final Round Qualifier against Hong Kong, China, on June 10.

The senior India men’s national team, who had travelled to Thailand with a 28-member squad, will now shift base to Hong Kong five days prior to their Asian qualifier with a 25-man squad, sans goalkeeper Hrithik Tiwari, centre-back Mehtab Singh, and full-back Subhasish Bose, who will travel back to India directly from Thailand. Bose was ruled out of the match against Thailand as well due to an injury.

Looking back at the match against Thailand, India head coach Manolo Márquez stressed the importance of capitalising on the opportunities that the team creates.

“The reality is that when you don’t score, especially the clear chances that we had, usually you lose the game,” said Márquez. “Thailand have very good players, and if you don’t take your chances against them, it will be difficult.”

Five days to go for their Asian qualifier against Hong Kong, Márquez is now looking ahead to making last-minute adjustments before the Blue Tigers take the field.

“You can always perform better than you did previously. There is no improvement without self-criticism. I feel that we can obviously play better, but physicality is one aspect that we miss out on in Indian football.

“It was very similar in our match against Vietnam (1-1) last year. We had equalised because we scored from the chance that we got,” he said. “We had more chances against Thailand, but if you don’t score, the other team generally tend to score more than you.”

Sandesh Jhingan, who captained the team against Thailand, echoed the coach’s words and underlined the importance of introspection and analysing the areas of deficit.

“There were negatives, and it’s now up to us to go back to the video room, watch the clips, and try to improve from there. The main game is against Hong Kong, and I think it’s good that we got to play a quality team like Thailand before that. This game was a good exercise for us,” said Jhingan.

The Blue Tigers will reach Hong Kong on Thursday, June 5, in the evening, and begin training on Friday.