The 20-member squad of the Indian Senior National Team arrived in Singapore on Saturday to play the International Friendly against Singapore. The match which is slated to played at the Choa Chu Kang Stadium will kick-off at 7.45pm (IST: 5.15pm).

The Indian Team arrived in three batches, from Kolkata, New Delhi and Mumbai. While Wim Koevermans arrived with most of the Kolkata-based players in the morning, Assistant Coach Savio Medeira (at the time of writing this report) is expected to arrive late evening from Mumbai along with most of the Goa-based players.

Meanwhile, Sunil Chhetri, who took a morning flight from New Delhi landed around 5pm.

“It will be a tough challenge for us,” Chhetri said. “They will be playing on their home turf and stay a good side. We come directly from the Nehru Cup triumph and it’s natural, expectations back home, are running high,” he added.

“We have been doing duty for our respective clubs since the Federation Cup but playing for the National Team stays a different feeling. It feels great to see all my teammates together and to be a part of a mission,” defender Gouramangi Singh commented.

Goalkeeper Subrata Pal lauded the initiative of playing an “International Friendly on a FIFA date.”

“On October 16, almost all the top countries of the World would be playing in various International Friendlies. It feels great that we also stay in that list. It’s a known fact that unless we play regularly on FIFA dates, we won’t be able to improve our rankings,” he opined. “The team spirit in the Nehru Cup was commendable. We need to stick together as an unit and we will.”

The boys who arrived via Kolkata had a light stretching session in the afternoon under the watchful eyes of National Coach Wim Koevermans. There were a couple of spell of showers during the day even as temperatures stayed around 25 degrees.

(AIFF Press Release)