THE BLOG BY CPD FOOTBALL | The World of Indian football and beyond by Chris Punnakkattu Daniel

Oman coach Paul Le Guen: India will give us a good fight

Indian National Team
Indian National Team

Photo courtesy: AIFF Media

Oman will take on India in a 2018 FIFA World Cup and 2019 AFC Asian Cup Preliminary Joint Qualifier in Muscat today.

The Arab nation is enjoying a great qualifying campaign and the team is looking forward to host India at the Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex.

Oman Head Coach Paul Le Guen is not underestimating the Indian team despite the fact that Stephen Constantine’s team is yet to claim a point in the qualifiers.

“They are a proud team and we know they will give us a good fight,” the Frenchman told during the official pre-match press conference on Monday. “We need to stay cool and keep our composure to earn full points.”

“We need to focus on making further improvements. But that doesn’t mean we are overconfident,” Le Guen added.

Oman’s experienced goalkeeper Ali Al-Habsi is expecting nothing less than a win against India and he gives full credit to their supporters for the impressive campaign so far.

“Now it’s time to continue with our good show and prove we are a strong side,” the Reading FC goalkeeper told.

“The whole country, including the media, were behind us. We were missing that before. But this time it was very special.”

“When the whole country is behind you obviously the team will perform well. And we came up with a fantastic performance against Iran,” Al-Habsi continued.

“We are playing India now. Then we have an away game against Turkmenistan, which will be followed by home match against Guam.”

“We want to make sure we win all nine points before we travel to Iran for our final group match. Anything can happen in four games. Even Iran may drop a few points. But by then we want to be in a position to know what to expect from that match.”

“The margin of victory doesn’t matter. Our focus is on wining the match and not the number of goals. It’s the points that count,” he concluded.