The pressure will be on higher-ranked India as it is playing in front of home crowd in the World Cup qualifiers on Tuesday, Bangladesh goalkeeping coach Bobby Mimms said here on Sunday.
The 104-ranked India, which is 83 places above Bangladesh in the FIFA chart, will be eyeing to notch up its first win in group E to keep its slender qualification hopes alive.
“The pressure is actually on India because they’re going to be playing in front of a big packed house. If India lose, it’s a big upset, so we are aware that they’ll be under a lot of pressure,” the 55-year-old Mimms told reporters ahead of their Tuesday’s clash against India.
“It’s a big motivation when you come to play in Kolkata knowing that it’s going to be a full house playing against India at the Saltlake Stadium.”
Following its impressive goal-less draw at Qatar, India has one point from two matches to be placed fourth in the table behind Oman, while Bangladesh has lost both its matches to remain on the bottom spot.
In its last match, Bangladesh fought bravely and created chances but only to go down 0-2 to Qatar in Dhaka.
“We all know how bravely we played against Qatar and we can cause India a problem. I think the pressure will be on India and not so much on us.”
The former Blackburn Rovers goalkeeper said his side won two friendly matches against Bhutan before going down to Qatar.
“We are hoping to maintain the same level of intensity as we showed against Qatar. If we can put up a good performance, the result will look after itself.”
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India will be missing the services of star defender Sandesh Jhingan and Anwar Ali (Junior) but Mimms said the home side will still be a force to reckon with.
“We’re not taking India lightly despite the fact that they have got a couple of injuries. They have got other good players who play at a good level in India. No matter what 11 they put out it’s going to be a good team,” he said.
Asked how he has prepared his team’s goalkeepers to deny the goal-poaching ability of Sunil Chhetri, he said: “We’ve just got to stick to our game plan and work at it and hopefully it nullifies any threat.
“Obviously, Chhetri scores a lot of goals and he’s a good player in the ISL and for the India team he is a talisman. We’ve got to be aware of him. But there are 10 other players on the pitch. We’ve got to be aware of the things and tactically and technically we’ve prepared our goalkeepers,” he said.
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