India will be tough opposition: Maldives coach

New Delhi - The Maldives’ coach Istvan Urbanyi said their next match in the Nehru Cup football tournament against India on Saturday would be a difficult one.

The Maldives beat Nepal 2-1 on Thursday in a match they dominated for the most part. Urbanyi was happy with his team’s performance and said he looked forward to the next game.

“I am very happy. We controlled the entire game well,” Urbanyi told reporters here after his team’s victory.

“India are a very well organised team. They are a difficult team to play against. They deserve our respect. They are a very focused and ambitious team,” he said.

“We couldn’t judge their performance in the previous game because of the poor pitch conditions.”

Talking about their win over Nepal, Urbanyi said that poor fitness levels of the team hampered their play.

“There were a few fitness problems due to players returning after a month of Ramzan,” he said.

“I am sure we will score more goals in the tournament as we regain our full fitness.”

Urbanyi was also content with the youngsters in the team. Both Abdulla Asadhulla and Ismail Easa, scorers for the Maldives, were making their debut.

“Our young players did well. Both our goal scorers were making their debut. Second half we played better than the first.”

Nepal coach Krishna Thapa blamed poor preparation for his team’s lacklustre performance.

“We played the whole game under pressure. Our preparations weren’t that good. We got to know about our participation very late,” he said.

“We will try to make some changes for the next game.”