Thaindian News

Doha, Jan 9 (IANS) India’s star forward Sunil Chettri said Sunday that without captain Bhaichung Bhutia it will be tough for the team against Australia in their opening match of the AFC Asian Cup football tournament here Monday. Bhutia will be missing the match with a calf muscle injury and the Kansas City striker feels that the 34-year-old’s absence will be a huge one. Striker Sushil Singh has also been ruled out for the first two matches as he was been slapped with a two-match suspension by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC).

“The whole team is missing him (Bhutia), he’s the most important player we have. It’s not just on the field, it’s the in dressing room with the boys. He knows how to motivate us and for the last six or seven years we have seen him as the leader and everything comes through him, on the field at least and it’s difficult when he’s not there but that’s the way it is,” said Chettri, after the team’s practice session.

Chettri, however, said that friendlies against defending champions Iraq and other top nations like Kuwait, UAE and Yemen have given the World No.142 some confidence.

“I think four or five months ago when we learned we were playing Australia in the first match we did think these kinds of things, there’s going to be Tim Cahill and Mark Schwarzer and all this kind of thing. To be honest we did get intimidated. But in the last month or so, whenever we talk about the players we think about ourselves. This is only about us so as far as the players are concerned, we know what we can achieve and we know exactly where we stand,” he said.

“We are playing against two of the best World Cup teams and one who almost qualified so it’s a chance to see where we are at and we’re looking forward to it.”

Chettri went on to thank chief coach Bob Houghton for taking India to the Asian Cup.

“Three or four years ago we only heard about the Asian Cup and I’m sure there are players in our team who didn’t follow the Asian Cup but thanks to our coach we have a chance to be in this competition. It’s because of him (Houghton) that we started thinking positively that we could do this and the most important thing is that we’re not scared. Before when we would play against any big nations we would have that kind of feeling about what was going to happen. I don’t know what’s going to happen but we’re here to do our best and that belief we have is because of our coach,” he said.