India coach Constantine steps down

SHARJAH, JAN 14 - India head coach Stephen Constantine has decided to step down after four years at the helm of Indian national football team.
In an emotionally charged press conference after India’s 1-0 loss to Bahrain through a 91st minute penalty, the Briton said his contract is ending after the tournament and he wants to move on.
“Today’s defeat was disappointing. In my four years as the head coach of India, we have improved leaps and bounds. I’m very happy and proud for the improvement this team has achieved,” Constantine said.
On the match, he said the boys had performed well and tried their best against a strong Bahrain team.
“It is not the way we want to end up in the Asian Cup. But these things happen in football.”
“We have exceeded all expectations and the boys deserve credit for it. I think India should move on positively from this moment,” Constantine said.
“We lost our defender Anas Edathodika early on due to a hamstring injury. We had to bring in Salam Singh early on.”
On a query whether India played for a draw, Constantine said there was no intentional approach as such.
“We were looking to take our chances. But in the second half, Bahrain pressed hard and our boys went deeper to defend the goal.”
Constantine wished the young crop of Indian players should regularly qualify for such major tournaments so that they raise the level of football in India.

SOUKUP HAPPY

Bahrain coach Miroslav Soukup was greatly relieved after the late penalty win. “We were prepared for Indian style of play with counter attacks. In this tournament India has proved they are a tough team to beat,” the coach from Czech Republic said.

“We believed in ourselves and stayed confident till the end of the match. We were lucky finally when we got the penalty after intense attacking in the second half,” Soukup said.

He said the players perfectly played according to the plan.

“Our players deserve appreciation for perfectly implementing our plan not to allow any counter attacks from India.”

Soukup praised Indian goalkeeper Gurpreet Sandhu and defenders for their great saves.

“We created many opportunities but Indian goalkeeper Sandhu blocked on many occasions and also Indian defenders played really well.”