The King’s Cup will begin today in Buriram, Thailand. The Indian football team will be back in action at the tournament, which is the 47th edition of King’s Cup, after its lukewarm campaign at the AFC Asian Cup earlier this year.
The Blue Tigers will return to the King’s Cup after a gap of 38 years. The team will be under the tutelage of newly appointed head coach Igor Stimac.
Igor Stimac on hoped that his wards will implement their learnings from practice in the today’s match, where India will clash with Curacao in their opener, who are ranked 82 in the Fifa World Rankings.
“The boys are confident, and have understood that they can improve their game with hard work on a daily basis.
“I appreciate the hard work put in by the players over the last 10 days in New Delhi. I expect them to implement their learnings from practice in the upcoming tournament,” Stimac said after the team’s arrival in Thailand.
Central midfielder Pronoy Halder praised Stimac, saying that the coach has been constantly reminding them that they can bridge the gap with the top nations.
“The coach keeps saying to us that if we listen to him, and execute it on the field, we can go a long way. The most significant part is that all the players have taken it in the right spirit,” Halder said.
Upbeat and confident ? #BlueTigers ? set for #KingsCup ??opener against 'tough' @CuracaoFootball ??
Read more ➡️https://t.co/U30YIeWE6D#BackTheBlue ? #IndianFootball #CUWIND pic.twitter.com/Yelrdvsids
— Indian Football Team (@IndianFootball) June 4, 2019
“We understand Curacao are a very strong team as most of their players are playing in premier divisions across Europe. That is providing us the extra motivation to prove a point. We will give our 100 percent,” he added.
India vs Curacao will kick off at 2 PM Indian Standard Time (IST). The match will be telecast on Star Sports 3. Alternatively, fans can stream the match live on Hotstar.