Local boys Pritam Kotal and Subhasish Bose are thrilled at the prospect of playing in front of the home crowd when the Indian football team takes the field in its AFC Asian Cup final qualifying round matches at the Salt Lake Stadium from June 8.
“Kolkata is the Mecca of Indian football. So many clubs have dedicated fans here and it’s great that they will all come together to cheer for India,” said Subhasish, in a video interview posted on the All India Football Federation portal.
Pritam looks forward to making the most of crowd support as India plays at home, for the first time in three years, its Group D matches against Cambodia (June 8), Afghanistan (June 11) and Hong Kong (June 14).
“We have not played in front of our fans for a long time due to the pandemic. I would like to encourage the fans to come and support us,” said Pritam.
“We need to qualify for the Asian Cup and all of us are completely focused on the task. We need to take it match by match. All teams are capable of defeating the other in the group and it will be very tight,” he said.
Subhasish recalled the last edition in 2019, when the Blue Tigers played in front of packed stands in the UAE.
“So many Indian fans had come to the ground there. We could not make it to the knockouts. We would love to go one better. But first, we need to qualify,” Subhasish said.
