What hurt India in draw against Malaysia? Manolo Marquez reveals

Manolo Marquez also mentioned India’s qualifying chances for Asian Cup 2027.

India were held to a 1-1 draw by Malaysia in their final international match of 2024 at the Gachibowli Stadium, Hyderabad on Monday (18 November).

The Blue Tigers conceded a really cheap goal in the 19th minute when Gurpreet Singh Sandhu’s error allowed Paulo Josue to score into an open net, before a Rahul Bheke header in the 39th minute brought things level.

Despite Gurpreet’s error potentially costing India a win, Manolo Marquez refused to point fingers at him. He stated after the match: “In Vietnam, Gurpreet was our best player and the goal was not his mistake. I see that kind of goal practically every week in the ISL. I know you couldn’t watch the game, but I learnt that in the Malaysia-Laos match, the goalkeeper of Malaysia who played today made exactly the same mistakes but the water saved the goal in the line.

“When you play as a goalkeeper, you know that a mistake results in a goal. Gurpreet does not need to show anything, he’s played at the top level across his career. It’s true he’s made mistakes in the last few games, and the mistakes from goalkeeper usually results in goal,” Manolo Marquez added.

When asked if this particular 21-man squad will be the one selected for the 2027 AFC Asian Cup qualifiers in March 2025, the gaffer revealed: “We have four-month break in terms of the next FIFA window which is in March. ISL will be over by then, barring the playoffs which will be after the window. The picture will be more clear, but I’m satisfied with this group we have. It’s difficult to say if this will be the group for the qualifiers, but I’m satisfied with the performances of some new players. Irfan played a good game, he is a player with a very good future.”

Despite being winless in his first four matches as India head coach, Marquez is confident that the Blue Tigers are inching closer to getting back to winning ways. He explained: “I don’t want to speak specifically about one or two players today. I agree that Brandon was the best player in the game.

“But I repeat that we are disappointed as we couldn’t win, but I’;m completely sure we will qualify for the 2027 AFC Asian Cup. We have four months before a next game. I know it’s now more than one year that India haven’t won a single game and then it’ll be a year and four-five months. But in March, we will win,” he also stated.

Finally, when asked about how he feels about the combination and chemistry of his team, the gaffer replied: “If you compare to Mauritius and Syria, our performance was 1000x better today. The opponents are completely different, because I feel that the FIFA ranking is a lie. Every opponent, of course apart from the main teams, but the other teams – today Malaysia in the last chance could’ve won the game but we could’ve won also.

“We need to continue working. Improvement is there, obviously everyone wants to win, because the score is the important thing in football. The players are at least understanding better what we want to do in my system,” he finished with.

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