Bangladesh coach Javier Cabrera underlined that the facilities in India before the Asian Cup qualifier were not ideal. However, his side remains unperturbed.
“I think there has been a lot of noise about this. Probably things should have been better, but for us, it is in the past now. We don’t want to find any excuses for that,” Cabrera told reporters in the pre-match press conference.
The Bengal Tigers travelled to India on March 20 to acclimate themselves to the conditions and altitude ahead of Tuesday’s match at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium.
However, the visitor was not allowed to train in the stadium. Instead, it was allotted a training ground at the North Eastern Hill University, five kilometres from the main city. Later, on Sunday, Bangladesh eventually shifted base to Shillong Lajong’s artificial turf.
Hours after completing a full training session at the Nehru Stadium’s main ground, Cabrera said, “We have not been training in the best of facilities, but we have been preparing very well. So that’s not in our focus anymore.”
“Today, we got to play and we got to train in the stadium finally. We are going to make the best of it. We are ready anyway,” he added.
Cabrera, like India’s head coach Manolo Marquez, is also Spanish and has a Goa connection. He was the assistant coach of Sporting Clube de Goa between 2013 and 2015. Marquez, on the other hand, is now the head coach of Indian Super League side, FC Goa.
“It is great, honestly,” Cabrera said, talking about the similarities between them, “But, as of now, Manolo definitely has had a much longer career than me. He’s just training at the highest level. He was in the third division in Spain. He has already had a great trajectory here in India.”
Marquez won the Indian Super League Cup in 2022 with Hyderabad FC, while Cabrera took Bangladesh to the semifinals of the SAFF Championship 2023.
“For me, it’s already three-and-a-half years as a national team coach, which is quite a big achievement. It feels good and I think it’s going to be a very entertaining match,” Cabrera added.
Bangladesh is the lowest-ranked side in the group and has never beaten India on the latter’s soil.
Content Source: sportstar.thehindu.com