AFC Asian Cup 2024: India's Mantra in Qatar - 'One Match At A Time', Says Sunil Chhetri

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AFC Asian Cup 2024 countdown is on with just four days left to go before the tournament gets underway in Qatar. India play as early as the second day against World No. 25 Australia in Group B (January 13) and are the lowest-ranked nation in the group. The team's captain Sunil Chhetri reveals how they will approach their opponents.

"We will take it one game at a time and try to give a good account of ourselves. We will prepare as much as possible, gather as much knowledge as we possibly can, and then act according to that," Sunil Chhetri told the-aiff.com.

This will be second time India and Australia will face each other in the AFC Asian Cup with their maiden head-to-head came in the 2011 edition, which was also conicidentally played in Qatar. Australian ran comfortable victors in the game with a scoreline of 4-0. Sunil Chhetri, who was one of the two active members from that India squad, said the Socceroos are no more an unknown quantity to them as they have studied the side well.

"We did not have much knowledge of the Australian team back then. Not when compared to the minute details we have now. We've watched their friendlies against Palestine and Bahrain, we know which leagues their players are in, and individual clips on them.

"With this familiarity, the fear factor goes out. I must admit, of course, that they are extremely good. They're a couple of levels above than what we play in the ISL, but at least we know what we're up against," said Chhetri.

As far as other teams in the group is concerned, India never faced Uzbekistsan at the senior level before but are quite familiar with Syria as they competed in the Intercontinental Cup 2019 in Ahmedabad with Igor Stimac just coming in as the new head coach. That game ended 1-1 with defender Narinder Gehlot scoring India's goal.