This team can go places, says India goalkeeper Gurpreet Singh Sandhu

Bengaluru, January 24: India's goalkeeper Gurpreet Singh Sandhu feels the impact of the ongoing AFC Asian Cup 2019 will be huge for Indian football.

India, who were returning to continental competion after an eight-year gap, had begun their campaign with a convincing 4-1 victory over Thailand. But thereafter, the Blue Tigers bowed out in the first round after losing back to back matches against hosts the UAE and Bahrain.

"21 out of the 23 players in the team were playing at such a stage for the first time. Now, we want to take it from here. It's important for us to deliver at the big stages and we shall do so," Gurpreet tolf AIFF.

Impact of @afcasiancup will be huge ⏫for Indian football ⚽️, says @GurpreetGK.

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— Indian Football Team (@IndianFootball) January 24, 2019

"The impact of the competition will be huge for Indian football."

"This team can go places if we remain united, and the game plan is in the right place. We're out of the tournament, but we can certainly do more than we did," the Bengaluru FC custodian added.

Gurpreet, who was also a part of the 2011 AFC Asian Cup in Qatar when the team lost all its matches in the group stage, maintained the "team matched their opponents in all the three matches."

"We were not at our best against Bahrain," stated Gurpreet.

Incidentally, in the 2011 edition also, India had lost to Bahrain, going down by a 2-5 margin.

"I had to make sure that we were in the game till the very last minute. It was difficult physically and mentally as they were coming at us all guns blazing. We fought till the end but fell short."

"We fought and there weren't any one-sided games. We matched our opponents every minute and were even better than them on many occasions. We got points on the board, and showed that we could match our opponents," he opined.

(Source: AIFF)