Intercontinental Cup: A fiery half-time rallying cry swings the final for the Indian squad

The Indian football squad was pretty dissatisfied with their performance when they entered the locker room at halftime of the Intercontinental Cup 2023 final versus Lebanon.

In truth, their Mediterranean opponents had made a few scoring threats, which was heavily mentioned in the halftime motivational speech.

The second half was an entirely different scenario, with India winning the Intercontinental Cup on Sunday night with to goals from captain Sunil Chhetri and winger Lallianzuala Chhangte.

“Every game, every victory, particularly clean sheets, are vital, therefore I am extremely thrilled. But I can assure you that by halftime, I was not at least content. Igor Stimac, the head coach of India, remarked after the game, “We played brilliantly for the first 10 minutes, and then we vanished.

“We shouldn’t let them dominate the game in that way for 20 minutes. I should probably not reveal what was said at halftime, but it was effective. The guys’ response in the second half was excellent. I want to see India like this, he continued.

Sunil Chhetri, the captain of India, also discussed the players’ need for a wake-up call to begin playing the way they should.

“At halftime, the supervisor gave us some verbal abuse. We were far from where we had been in the last game. It was the wake-up call we needed, according to Chhetri, who was mentioned by AIFF in a press statement.

There were many words spoken, some of which I won’t repeat here. The most important thing, though, is that we knew we had it in us, and in the end, we have no regrets. We are pleased with the victory, of course, and it’s simpler to express that now that we are up 2-0.

Head coach Stimac looked forward to the AFC Asian Cup, where India has been placed in Group B with Australia, Uzbekistan, and Syria, as the Blue Tigers celebrated their victory.

“We have a lot of work to do before the AFC Asian Cup. Better posture, run timing, and knowing when to play on the ground and when not are things we need to master, according to Stimac.

Lebanese transitions were 7-8 excellent. Neither against Australia nor Uzbekistan can that occur. What matters is how we do in January (at the Asian Cup), not how we perform now.

India has so far competed in six games in 2023 and has won every one of them. Attacking winger Lallianzuala Chhangte thinks that India’s recent victories have been the result of a solid defensive line.

“Winning a trophy with the squad feels amazing. However, the primary factor in our victory is the quality of our defence. Because of their stability at the back, we have more flexibility up front. We knew we were up against a really talented team today, but we had a different mindset going into the second half, and it paid off,” said Chhangte, who was voted the match’s hero.

India’s centre defender was named the tournament’s Hero. Sandesh Jhingan thinks that a team’s confidence is built on the basis of clean sheets.

“The possibilities are endless if we play as we did in the second half. A clean sheet is the cornerstone upon which any team should develop. We could have done better, but there were still some mistakes, so let’s fix them and see where it gets us,” Jhingan added.

While the Blue Tigers still have some things to improve on, skipper Chhetri said it best when he said that winning at home is nice.

“This triumph was nice, because we were unable to win the Hero Intercontinental Cup the previous time. Even though it was difficult, we were glad to maintain the tidy sheets, said Chhetri.