*‘HE IS THE TALISMAN OF THIS TEAM’*
*LAVISH CONSTANTINE PRAISE FOR SUNIL CHHETRI* *AIFF Media Team* *MUMBAI: *National Coach Stephen Constantine lavished huge praise on “talisman” Sunil Chhetri after India’s stupendous 4-1 victory against Puerto Rico in the International Friendly in Mumbai on Saturday (September 4, 2016). “Sunil is the talisman of this Team. He is a wonderful Player. He has been scoring goals for the last ten years. I keep teasing him, saying ‘your time is almost done,’ but he’s not having that. He says he has another 4-5 years in him,” Constantine said post match. “But look, he keeps himself in great shape. He is one of the leaders of the Team, the Captain. And as long as he’s fit, he plays,” the Coach certified. “For a Player of his calibre, you have to find the space for him. For me, his place is behind the striker. He brings other people into the game. He has an eye for goal, he sees the pass, and he works,” he stated. “Personally, I like to play him behind the striker. In some games, I like him on the left or the right, but at this point in his career, I see him playing behind the striker,” he maintained. Constantine also mentioned about the two new debutants Daniel Lalhimpuia and Germanpreet Singh who made their Senior India debut against Puerto Rico. The Coach has so far fielded 30 debutants since taking charge in March 2015. ““I hate losing. So whenever we win, it’s okay for me. Beating Puerto Rico who are above us in the Rankings would help. We also had two more youngsters who got a taste of International Football today,” he quipped. “They are 38 places above us. Anyone above us is good enough. The match gave us an opportunity to play against South American opposition which we do not normally do.” “Puerto Rico were very good on the ball. We needed some time to get into our stride. Ideally, when we’re playing bigger and better sides, we need to start quickly as on another day we may not get back into the game. Today we were fortunate to equalise early and then take the game from there.” “Aditya (Thackeray) and his group have done an unbelievable job to get the pitch as close to perfect as you can get it. The atmosphere by the Mumbai fans was excellent. There were only six or seven thousand but it felt like some twenty thousand. I hope it’s not another 61 years before there’s another game here,” the Coach smiled. Media Department, AIFF. Alternate: me...@the-aiff.com Website: www.the-aiff.com
