Mumbai: After suffering only their second loss in the last two years and first of the Intercontinental Cup, India head coach Stephen Constantine rued individual erorrs and admitted some reserve players didn’t grab chances after making rare starts.
“We didn’t get the result we wanted but it was important that the youngsters got their chances. When you win two games, you maybe get carried away. New Zealand were a young and disciplined side. Individual errors cost us today. Some players didn’t take the opportunity to put themselves in the spotlight,” he said.
New Zealand had put the inexperienced Indian defence under extreme pressure on aerial duels inside the box but they were unlucky not to score atleast on couple of occassions.
Constantine admitted aerial duels inside the box were a concern as they prepared for the AFC Asian Cup. “The aerial balls are one of the problems we generally face as we don’t have too many big guys in India. New Zealand had 3-4 big guys at the fore front and they put pressure on our defence on aerial balls, luckily it didn’t cost us today. Height isn’t everything but has to be a factor in the tournament. This is a concern,” he said.
The English coach made seven changes after India had final berth in their grasp with full six points and goal difference of eight.
“It was going to happen because we are using this tournament to prepare for Asian Cup. We knew we were more or less in the final, unless we lost 4-0 or 5-0, which wasn’t going to happen. The job was done after the two matches. We’re going to play three games in ten days in Asian Cup and hence this tournament was a good opportunity to get used to that,” Constantine added.
