Afghanistan will face India in the South Asian Football Federation Championship final at the Dasharath Rangashala Stadium in Kathmandu today.
Six-time champions India booked a place in their ninth SAFF Championship final by beating Maldives 1-0 in Monday’s semi-final. Afghanistan advanced to their second final by beating hosts Nepal 1-0 on Sunday and now have their eyes on revenge, having lost to India in the 2011 final in Delhi.
Afghan assistant coach Ali Zawad Attari is confident of victory, believing that his players are technically and physically better than their opponents.
He does, however, hope that the referee will not be the story after the final of a tournament which has already seen its share of questionable officiating.
‘I hope that the referee in the final will be a good referee, who decides the game well both ways and goes with fair play,’ Attari said on Tuesday.
‘This is the repeat of 2011 knockout stages. It is the same four teams in the semi-finals and the same two teams in the final. And you saw the referee last time changed the game.
‘We don’t care if it’s in India or Nepal, we will play our natural game. We know we are a better team than India and we have to prove it [in the final].
‘We played against Nepal in front of 28,000 supporters but we were not thinking of them. We were just playing our natural game,’ the Afghan assistant coach continued.
‘We wanted India in the final. We want revenge for the last time, when the referee changed the game,’ he concluded.
India coach Wim Koevermans was less bold than Attari in his comments on Tuesday.
‘Against the Maldives, we showed our character. We played really well. I have already mentioned that we are here
to play five finals and [we have] already won four finals.’
‘Now we are 90 minutes away from the title,’ said Koevermans.
‘We are giving our full respect to Afghanistan. We never underestimate any team. Afghanistan are playing good football, so we are looking forward to an exciting final match’, he added.
-With New Age input