I thought we were the better team, says Rui Bento after Kuwait's goalless draw against India

This game also marked Sunil Chhetri’s final match for the Blue Tiggers

Kuwait held India to a 0-0 draw in front of a sold-out Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata and kept their hopes alive for a place in the third round of the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers. It was an evenly balanced contest as both teams had equal chances to score, but couldn’t find the back of the net.

Both Gurpreet Singh Sandhu and Sulaiman Abdulghafoor had a field day as they pulled off seven saves combined across 90 minutes. It was a night to remember for Indian Football fans, not for the result, but for their Captain, Leader, Legend, Sunil Chhetri who played his final game in Blue.

After the game, Kuwait’s head coach Rui Bento addressed the media and expressed his thoughts.

Thoughts on the game

The head coach began by sharing his thoughts on the game and said that his side played well and created a lot of chances, but couldn’t score.

“Today we played well. I thought we were the better team in the field. We created a lot of scoring chances and controlled more of the possession. In this stadium playing against a team like India was great, our performance was great today. But it wasn’t that fantastic because we had to score the chances we created,” he asserted.

Thoughts ahead of Kuwait’s upcoming match against Afghanistan

Rui Bento was also quizzed about his thoughts going into the upcoming match against Afghanistan on June 11. He said that his team will try its best to win the game. 

“It’s not the time to make the math for the last game. We are very focused on working to win the game. We have one game to win and we will try our best to win it. Then the final result will determine how the table will look like, but we are fully focused on winning the match against Afghanistan,”

He was also asked about how confident his team is to win the final game. He replied, “We have good feelings for the next game. We believe in the quality of our work, we are sure that after working for this team for a year we are much better than we were. Our confidence levels are high and want to win against Afghanistan.”

Words on Sunil Chhetri

The Portuguese tactician also shared his views on Sunil Chhetri and said that he knows him since Chettri’s stint at Sporting Lisbon.

“I know Chhetri from a long time ago from Sporting Lisbon. He had a brilliant and beautiful career in India, he has a big personality and is a leader. You feel when you talk with him that he knows how to be a leader, he’s a different person. It’s a sad moment for him and for the whole of Indian football, but life is like that and we wish the best for his life and we hope he can continue staying tied to Indian football,” he concluded.

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