MARGAO
Blue Tigers may appear in a good space after an unbeaten run of 13 games on the bounce, which includes breaking a hoodoo of not winning a match against Myanmar on their soil in 64 years. But that aside, Myanmar is not a team to be taken lightly as the scoreline against their favour at 0-1 does not indicate the true picture of the game proceedings earlier in the year in March in Yangon.
The White Angels dominated the game against India showcasing an exemplary technical compactness that only exposed frailties in the attacking third.
In a pre-match AFC Asian Cup UAE 2019 Qualifiers press conference at Nehru Stadium on Monday, the Myanmar coach, Gerd Zeise stated that it was a result that should have been otherwise.
"We were a better team (against India). Unfortunately, the better team lost. It was a wrong result. But that is football," he said. "For us, we have come here not to lose again even though it is not that crucial a game. The crucial game is against Kyrgyzstan that we have to win. We have come here to play good football and to show that we are a good team and if possible score some points," the German stated.
In reply to another question, if the India away game was looked at as a pressure tie given that his side failed to convert their scoring chances for a positive result in their earlier encounter, the Myanmar Head Coach looked at it differently. "That was a disease and we had too many chances but did not score though we tried. We have made personnel changes and I hope for the best. India is a team good in defence and I hope we find a way to penetrate it. Such matches, you get only one chance. If you cannot score, you cannot win. You have to have the nerves to score, but it is not easy," the seasoned coach offered an explanation. But with the side having come good in their last qualifiers against Macau, would the team be on a different mindset ahead of the Fatorda game? "It was different. It was a good match from our side. Macau could not handle that," Zeise stated.
