The Indian men’s football team will kick start its preparations for the next month’s SAFF Championships in Maldives with the first of the two international friendly matches against Nepal here on Thursday. The five-team SAFF Championships will be held from October 3 to Oct. 13 in Male.
Besides India, the other participating teams are Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, hosts Maldives and Nepal.
“We are happy to be here and happy to be together again. These two international friendlies will help us prepare for the SAFF Championship in the Maldives next month,” India’s head coach Igor Stimac said in a release. “I just know these games will be good and we need to learn on the pitch.”
The second friendly will be played on Sept. 5.
This will be the first time India will feature in an international game since playing Afghanistan in its final group match of the 2018 World Cup and 2023 Asian Cup joint-qualifiers in Qatar on June 15. With dark clouds hovering in the sky, rain threat looms large over the match. The pitch conditions at the practice ground were already tough because of torrential downpour.
