DD Sports to telecast SAFF Championship 2023

India to kick off proceedings against arch-rivals Pakistan.

The SAFF Championship 2023 kicks off today at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium in Bengaluru. Previously, it was announced that only FanCode will stream the games live on their app and website, but now DD Sports have also been bagged in as the broadcasters of the competition.

On the opening day of the SAFF Championship, in the second game, India will lock horns with arch-rivals Pakistan. Pakistan were not able to reach Bengaluru a day prior to the tournament and the entire contingent will arrive around six hours before the kick-off (7:30 PM IST).

Igor Stimac's words before the SAFF Championship 2023

"I hope Kuwait and Lebanon feel welcome in every sense here in this beautiful city of Bengaluru. This SAFF Championship is going to be very competitive. Our group is special (Pakistan, Nepal and Kuwait), and every game will be different. The crowd will enjoy good football, and let's hope for plenty of goals," said Stimac.

India bagged a convincing 2-0 win over Lebanon in the Hero Intercontinental Cup Final on Sunday evening. Stimac stated that although his side are content with how they've done, there's no time to dwell on that result or even overvalue the success in Bhubaneswar.

"The mood in the camp is brilliant, obviously, after winning the Intercontinental Cup. We enjoyed each and every second in Odisha and are happy with our performance. But the second step, which is the difficult one, is to repeat it from game to game. Let's not be misled by the great performance against Lebanon, as every day is a new challenge. Keeping consistency is very important for us," said the Croatian.

Moving from the heat and humidity of Bhubaneswar to the rain and coolness of Bengaluru is a welcome change for Stimac. "It's going to be different here - new tournament, new approach, new teams, new conditions. It's beautiful weather to play football," he smiled. "Obviously, we'll approach each game separately. We're well aware of the strengths and weaknesses of our opponents, so we'll work on it," he added.

As far as their first opponents Pakistan are concerned, Stimac was all praise for the 195-ranked side despite them losing all three of their games in the Four Nations Cup in Mauritius last week.

"Let's not speak about the rankings here. Pakistan were better than Kenya (in their 0-1 loss) away from home. They created better chances and were more aggressive. Yes, they defended deep, but they have six to seven players who were developed abroad," he said.

Pakistan also went down 0-3 to Mauritius and 1-3 to Djibouti, but "they have certain qualities which you have to respect," according to Stimac. The last time India faced Pakistan was in the semi-final of the 2018 SAFF Championship in Bangladesh, where the Blue Tigers emerged as 3-1 victors thanks to a brace from Manvir Singh and a goal from Sumeet Passi.