Imphal: Senior national football team head coach Igor Stimac feels it is a pleasure for the Blue Tigers to play two matches of the triangular football tournament in Manipur.
India will play Myanmar in the first match on Wednesday and will face Kyrgyz Republic on March 28.
“Playing in Manipur brings more joy to our players than anywhere else,” Stimac said ahead of the match at the Khuman Lampak Stadium. I have been stressing the importance of playing at home in the FIFA International window and now we get to Has gone.”
“It’s much better than going to another country and playing with their arrangements on their soil,” he said.
Stimac believes that playing such matches will increase the popularity of football in the state and infrastructural development will also come.
Myanmar (earlier Burma) has a slight advantage over India considering the past record. India, ranked 106 in the FIFA rankings, have played 24 matches against 159th-ranked Myanmar, winning nine, losing 11 and drawing four.
–IANS
