Wim Koevermans: Pakistan did not want to play football and deliberately slowed down the game

Wim Koevermans, the Indian coach said Pakistan did not want to play football

After losing the 2nd friendly 2-0 to the visiting Pakistan U-23 side, Indian coach Wim Koeverman was disappointed with the performance of his players.

Koevermans said, "We are definitely disappointed with the loss. The fact is we did not create enough chances today. More importantly, we could not win momentum when we were chasing the game in the second half."

"We had some good chances, including the one just before they scored off a free-kick. But football is a

funny

game. And suddenly we were down 1-0 in the game."

The Indian coach also criticised the Pakistan unit for slowing down the pace of the game. "It was clear right from the first minute of the game that Pakistan intended to waste time. In the second half they did not want to play football and they tried everything to defend their lead," he added.

The coach shunned away from blaming any individual errors for the loss as he expected every player on the pitch to have played better than they actually did.

Meanwhile, the Pakistan coach Mohammad Al Shamlan was very pleased with the way his side bounced back after the loss in the first friendly against the home side.

The Pakistan coach Mohamed Al Shamlan was pleased with his team’s win

He said, "I'm very happy as we assessed the situation after the first game, we improved and we played very well today. We did make a few positional changes in our defence and worked on our set-pieces and I'm very happy with the result against an Indian side that had more quality players on the pitch."

The coach dismissed all the talk about the aggression his side had shown in the second half as he suggested his side maintained the composure even when the pressure of expectations was higher than ever.

"There was no pressure for me as I'm an outsider. I'm a Bahrain national and all I have is respect for both, India and Pakistan."

Talking about the players he added, "Although the boys can get carried away with the intensity of the game but even aggression important in these kind of

games

. Pakistan winning against India in any game goes down in the history books. So yes, I'm really pleased with the result."

All and all, the Indian U-23 unit must now be short of confidence after losing to their neighbours comprehensively in this friendly encounter. Moreover, the loss couldn't have been timed any worse as the side now have less than a month as they prepare for the upcoming Asian Games in Incheon.