 I'm really happy man, really happy because it's not easy to play Thailand, especially with the technical qualities they have, it's very difficult, it's high pressing and it's pressing all the way till 90 minutes, you can't let them have the ball for even 5 minutes because they can punish you. In the first half for 25 minutes I thought we were playing against Barcelona for some time, I mean they were so good. So we made sure that we're going to be brave and press them high, make sure that they don't pass around and that really worked. And also what worked was we got the goals at the right intervals and then we pressed hard and we worked hard. It's not easy, it's not easy against this talent side man, they are very good but really happy and very very proud of the boys. There you have it straight from the horse's mouth, the man with 67 goals for India now, India's top scorer in international's ever. India's highest goal scorer at the Asian Cup, Sunil Chhetri breaking it down for us. It's not the UAE, it's not Bahrain, India are on top of Group A after a phenomenal 4-1 victory over Thailand yesterday. We have in studio Arjun Pandit who gets around quite a bit these days, thanks for coming in. I know, I know, I know, I know. And Vairav Raghunandan who will also be playing the dual role of Mr. Nobody Kapadia. So boys reacting to Chhetri's post-match comments straight away, what do you think of the game? I feel it was a privilege when I was hosting the show, building up to it. I think nobody in their right mind had ever, even you might be the most positive person ever, right? And nobody would have thought that we would have walked away with a 4-1 win. I mean I can give you the reaction, the first Chhetri goal came in, goal, 1-0, what happened? Then, after 10 minutes of that Thailand equaliser, now normalcy is resuming. Then from studio, we were walking back to the place where we go and watch the games. And we were crossing the Bengali commentary room. And suddenly the bombs are going, what happened? Ran in and what a goal that was bro. And after that, they put it on the car gear, they were automatic after that. The Thais were nowhere after that, this for me. I mean, I don't know, people might take on me in social media or people might take on me in the comment section. But for me, this is India's biggest win at the international level. Hands down for me, at least in my life. I think at this point of time, Arjun, I must stop you and I must remind you of 1964. There was a 4-nation tournament, my friend. Yes, but 3-1 against Hong Kong. 4-1 against Thailand. Big deal. Inner Singh's record is gone. But seriously speaking, I must say that it was really annoying watching the game while doing a live blog. Because when the goals were scored, what is your natural reaction? Jump up. What is your natural reaction with a laptop on your... So that was... So the laptop was fine right now? Yeah, hopefully another live blog. There are more sites that are open. No, they are from the government. Alright, so let's go across now to Abu Dhabi where the action was going down yesterday and where India would play the next game as well against the host UAE. Anand Tyagi was there, he was covering the game for Star Sports. Anand, what were your reactions or what were the reactions that you got at the stadium when India recorded that win? The reactions range from the incredible to celebratory in nature. I remember when the third goal went in from Anirutthapa and I was sitting in the commentary gantry right next to Paul Maysfield and John Helm in the commentary box. And I looked around, I just wanted to see the reaction. Of course I was celebrating myself but just looked around and there was a lot of Asian media there, Southeast Asian media as well and they were in disbelief, you should have seen some of their faces. They were like, this is really happening. And then finally I went pitch side just at the full-time whistle to be able to do the interviews post-match and there was a lot of Arab media there as well and I could see they were talking in their own language but there was a sense of disbelief about what they had just seen from Indian football. I don't think they expected anything close to that. And of course the scoreline really made that body language so much more different. It could have been 2-1 and they would have been just like, okay, it happens. But 4-1, I don't think anyone saw that coming. A couple of Aussie guys came up to me and congratulated me before they went on to do their media stints and I said, you know what, this is India's first win in the Asian Cup in almost 55 years and they were like, wow, the treats are new because it might not happen for the next 55 so it kind of still ranges borders on the incredible for pretty much everybody and of course it's all good fun and banter at the end of the day and it will not be 55 years before India pick up their next win in the competition but there is a quiet sense of belief that's crept in and I think one more point maybe in the next couple of games and I think the reactions could be very, very different to how they were after this game. So also coming in at this point is Paul Murphy who, if you watched the last episode, joined us. He's a freelance journalist based in Bangkok and covers the Thai team very closely. The Thai manager, Rahivach, an experienced manager, was sacked just hours after this big defeat. So Paul, what was this sort of expected? Was there something going on in the background? Or is this just a knee-jerk reaction to the massive loss that probably nobody in Thailand expected? Hello, yeah. Sacking a manager, one game into a tournament is certainly a strong response and I think from the outside most would consider it a little bit over the top. Thailand started the game well with a better team in the first half but capitulated horribly in the second half but it's one game in a tournament and from the outside it looks like there's some bad things going on behind the scenes and there has been something brewing since the Suzuki Cup when they failed to defend the trophy. There were rumors of unrest in the squad in terms of the way that Rahivach had them playing. Some players were apparently unhappy with that and there's a lot of pressure from fans as well because Thailand sees itself as a top team in Southeast Asia and if they can't win that competition there's pressure on the manager even though he had to play without several of his top players. It's not surprising from the context of Thai culture however where in the club level there's a big hiring and firing culture and a few bad results often lead to a manager losing his job. Rahivach has had more than 18 months to get this right. He's not been tested too much because a lot of the games have been inconsequential other than Suzuki Cup and that was his first big test and most fans would suggest he failed that one and I think the nature of the defeat against India was particularly damaging a lot of people were speculating at the end of the game that he might not see the tournament and that's exactly what happened and so no big surprises in some way over the top yes but at the same time knowing Thai football not too surprising on the whole. Alright so that pretty much sums it up we'll come back to you Paul in a minute to get a little bit more on that meek surrender in the second half but before that I want to get reactions from you guys what do you think about A. this hiring firing culture that goes on in football and B. before the tournament started we were examining whether Mr. Constantine Stephen Constantine who's the national team India's national team coach how secure his job would be going forward but here game one and like I know I know you know do you remember the conversation we were having in the morning before the shoot started right because before the tournament everyone's saying oh this is Stephen Constantine's last tournament and irrespective of what the result is going to be Stephen Constantine is not going to see out or rather his contract is not going to be renewed and no one thought about the Thai team or the Thai coach and one game in hello hello India's 141 and the Thai coach has got sacked now this entire policy of hire and fire I don't really know too much about and but it just doesn't make any sense for me I mean one game into a tournament sacking your coach is I think avoiding a PR disaster more than anything else saying that as an FA you've done your job of getting rid of that coach and saying now we're getting ready to start the new cycle also what interested me was that Paul said that he was in charge for 18 months which is if you think about it not really enough time for a national team manager to be able to stamp his own authority onto a team and sacking him after the first game is just highly I think it's a I think it's a decision that's been taken from the heart as opposed from the head because you know they would have thought I mean they in their right mind would not have added even single discussion prior to kick off that India would walk away with three points there is a very worst case scenario they walk away with the result of a point or something like that and the goal margin the whole margin man plus three is our goal difference now now you said Constantine right you've got to give full support to Stephen Constantine for the tactics he's adopted for the game versus Thailand now before the game we guys were always discussing should it be JJ in front should it be Balwant in front no one had mentioned Ashik Kurunyan he chose Ashik Kurunyan and he rested both his experienced campaigners on the bench and that boy for me I know Chhetri got your two goals that boy for me was the player of the match for us what a standout positive performance was beyond that every change he made it was spot on man his tactics they were spot on so full marks to the coach full marks I think the coach is always the lowest common denominator it's always I mean if the team performs badly you tend to say that the coach is not doing his job if the team performs well then you tend to say oh players have played well they never praise the coach which is fair enough also that's the nature of their job they're supposed to be in a suit in the dugout they're not supposed to be on the pitch but yes yesterday Constantine was I mean whatever he did spot on spot on man I mean what more do you want the perfect way to start a tournament I think also one thing that stood out from yesterday's game was you are going with Kurunyan as the standout best player for India on the pitch yesterday but I saw it a little more as a sort of team performance where any number of four or five of the boys who played could have walked away with the man of the match if you know if it came down to it I mean Chetri put in a top quality performance Udanta was great causing trouble whenever he can first half you don't see Udanta saying first half he barely saw him everything was on the left everything was on the left for India Naziri's work rate man non stop actually that would be really like the amount they must have run yesterday in the second half more than anything I know he's a player that you haven't in the past rated very highly but Subashish Bose on the left did his job well linked up well with Naziri in front and then sort of gave India that attacking impetus even though we had only 35% ball at the end of 90 minutes we made much better use of it we had as many chances as Thailand and far clearer better chances then they managed to create even though they had almost two thirds of the ball through the game but that was kind of our strategy also you know that that's what I'm saying the coach got its spot on he won't tell the players to keep the ball I want possession with us I want you to move them around he knows that that we will not have the ball so he set up the team in such a way to take on 11 players when you don't have the ball to break on the counter like we've always said and a majority of their attacks were coming on the counter even that second goal or rather the thapa goal third goal counter win the ball in your half boom and of course thapa followed up and what a finisher that is where the mentality of an Indian player has changed over the last few years the calmness in front of goal it's come in the mentality role to take the time in that position to pick out his spot and then like dink it, literally find the line through three defensive players and put it right in the corner that's the kind of goal you don't see in a fiver side game in Chatharpur composure, clarity, I mean confidence in his own ability to put the ball where he's required to in a pressure situation phenomenal stuff I want to go to Paul for a second now to just talk about that second half for a minute because thailand managed to equalize brought parity back and looked in ascendancy when we went into the break and like you said we were expecting to same story repeat itself bright start for India but go down fighting but then the second half happened so Paul what do you make of that second half performance from a thailand perspective yes thailand's second half performance was incredibly weak I think from most of those points of view they, as I said they played well in the first half thought they were better sides they hit back well after conceding a penalty which I don't think was a fair penalty and they finished the half the stronger side and I don't know what happened at half time but it just seemed that the psychological blow of conceding so early in the second half really knocked the players off their stride and they just I mean India really pressed in the second half I thought Raivach was slow to make some substitutions and when he did make the substitutions I didn't think they were the right ones he moved Tiratana into midfield from his favorite position on the left there were other options on the bench who stayed on the bench which I thought was a little bit strange and obviously the big moment they substituted Chanatip when they side by 3-1 down and chasing goals and brought on Sirot she was barely played in the last couple of years and it was a very strange one and it just summed up the whole disaster of a second half that Thailand played such a contrast with a reasonably confident first half so who knows what we said at half time I don't know if that contributed to the absolute capitulation we saw but very surprising Fair enough so surprises all around surprises on our side, surprises on the Thai side surprises everywhere and the other surprising thing was that when India stepped out onto the pitch yesterday the armband was won not by Sunil Chhetri but by the goalkeeper Gurpreet Singh Sandhu and as you guys discussed I think Elko on your show said that he wouldn't give the armband to a goalkeeper but this kid as far as I am concerned from 8 years ago when he was a 17 year old third goalkeeper in the 2011 Asian Cup squad to now captaining the side in this historic win I think it's been a big big step forward for Gurpreet and in terms of the general leadership structure of the team as well Anant has been of course closest to the team because we are here in India while he is in the UAE covering the tournament Anant what do you make of this whole captaincy conversation? Yeah that is a sore topic isn't it who is the captain of the Indian football team we don't know, we'll probably never get to know at least not in the current times but as far as the players are concerned when you meet them after training before a game and if you ask them who is captaining today the only answer will be we don't know and frankly we don't care I think that's the general body language of all the players that's Sunil Chaitri because he is captain leader legend but he will always be as long as he is on the pitch but there are captains now within that team you know you could see Gurpreet's reactions during the game communicating with his defense you could see Anas almost berating Pritam Kotal after he lunged in one of the challenges which could have been dangerous so you could see though that leadership is not just with Sunil Chaitri at the back it's with Sandesh and with Anas who are guiding Subashish and Pritam on one side Pranoy is becoming a bit of a leader guiding Anirutthapa in terms of what to do Sunil is always talking to somebody like Udanta to Ashik about when to take the throw-ins when to make the runs for the throw-ins and for the free kicks and all of that there are plenty of leaders in that team but there is only one captain and I don't think the entire team collectively cares who really has the captain's armband because in times of crisis they look at only one man and he often delivers alright so the team according to Tiagi doesn't care who the captain is do you guys care, do we care who the captain is is it how important is it to have a steady regular captain for the national team every team's dynamics are different first and foremost let's agree upon that one team's dynamics are completely different from another team so he didn't say if he is running here then he will run here in B so if he is saying because he has followed it very closely if he is saying he is creating a lot of natural leaders on the pitch which every coach tries to do because of course there was Sunil Chhetri is attacking on the opposing half you need leaders at the back who are talking to people and telling them to come into shape and so on and so forth but I just feel it's a little unsettling they might say it to Anand they might show that everything is fine I feel that it is a little unsettling come what may are you trying to tell me that no one knows who is the next captain and if you have someone with the status of Sunil Chhetri and you realize you are playing your first game of the Asian Cup and he is not captain are you saying there are not going to be conversations behind closed doors within the team or what is going on no I am just saying so I am saying of course there will be conversations right and my point is are these conversations needed particularly in a situation where you have one person who is by any stretch of imagination a natural leader so basically what we are talking about is not about the captain we are talking about the arm band just to be clear because the role of a captain is still essentially being held by Chhetri he is leading by example we are expecting him see on his side that's all we are talking about we are talking about him my point is you suppose the team is not talking about it I mean I am not saying people have told me but of course they are human I think the concern is that I mean at a certain level the concern is that the individual who is not being given the captain's arm band he is expected to prove something to earn that captain's arm band and which brings the question what more does Chhetri need to do to prove this no I mean I will flip that around and say that even Chhetri himself has sort of pointed out Gurpreet's role as the most vital player in the current Indian 11 that's who he is but if you ask Gurpreet also while he is wearing the arm band he will say I am wearing the arm band but my captain is that so therefore yes no is this a conversation that we should even be having firstly we already had it absolutely we have already had this conversation I think it's a valid conversation because I just feel it's a very needless conversation if you would have made him captain would we have been talking about it this kind of stuff definitely happens at club level where captains are changed through the season not too much not really but not when you have someone of the stature of Sunil Chhetri absolutely not the stature of Sunil in the case of a team like Arsenal where a guy like R-Teta was captain without even playing a game the whole season and thank god he is not captain anymore let's not remind ourselves of that but that team had only one captain look I am just saying bro the other thing in this regard is that ok we want him to play forever but the fact is that Chhetri is 34 years old this is his final major tournament so sentimentally we might have wanted him to have the captain's arm band for his last arm band and the captain's arm band is a sentiment thing I mean it is the captain's arm band I understand why you are going because we also have to consider the fact that India will now be playing the Asian Cup every edition so 4 years from now who will lead the team Sunil Chhetri no 4 years from now he will be sitting with us in studio over here talking about the game no no no 4 years from now 38 is a bit more then he will be captain, leader, legend on a stick captain, leader, legend, mid I just feel it is a very needless conversation it could have been avoided but of course if you are Stephen Constantine what he is doing and I am not saying he owes anyone an answer it is his decision at the end of the day it is his head on the line at the end of the day he will say I am preparing someone for the future like you said Sunil Chhetri is not going to be there with me but I still feel if you are giving a captain and you feel there is someone every member in that team looks up to it is him so if he says do this do that no one will say anything to him because they know what he has done that is that even Renadi was of the same opinion Renadi was going a little sentimental because he is saying it is the last Asian Cup and he has done so much for the country it should be thought from here and even if you think from here all fingers point to Chhetri at least for me and I think most of the team will agree also by the way Chhetri bhai I know you will definitely watch this so that is an open invitation for the 2023 Asian Cup to take any one of our chairs in the studio whichever one you like best actually just a little bit more of our stomach will it be less will it be less? we will take care of our own stomach alright I am talking about myself alright alright so that I think takes care of enough of the captaincy debate hopefully they will figure out or we will leave to the Gods who is India's captain in the next match against UAE but I want to go to wind up this whole conversation pick a favourite goal so give it some thought Anant we will come to you first yesterday's historic win favourite goal is a tough one depends on how you look at it I guess Sunil Chhetri getting that goal with a bit of an accidental assist it has got to be said from Ashik Gurunian may be my favourite goal because it was important to get that early goal in the second half to keep that belief going but I am also extremely extremely thrilled for JJ Lalpeklua who hadn't scored for club or country for almost 10 months so him coming off the bench remember he did not start in the 11th that was a bit of a jolt to somebody who is considered the second best goal scorer in football after Sunil of course coming off the bench and scoring and ending that goal drought and then just celebrating without the miso sniper celebration he went down on his knees looked up towards the heavens and said it is finally arrived and what a time for the goal to arrive so between Sunil and JJ I will probably pick JJ as my favourite goal one for Chhetri, Chhetri's second goal which gave India the lead to one Pandit you are pick mine would be the fourth goal fourth goal India team it has grown by leaps and bounds we have been covering it for so long that you have got someone who is coming off the bench and you can do something like that and the mere fact that JJ has not done anything this entire season his last goal last goal actually came in the Intercontinental Cup versus India which is more than about six months back and see the beauty of that goal it was at what time just showed you the amount of steam they had in the engine, right? Nasri played a good pass JJ was blocked by two guys on left and right all he could do was thunda or if he took more time then gone and that's what he did it was a very eniestised goal if I may say scored something like that in Champions League for Barcelona versus Chelsea that for me was the goal looked up, placed it and gave us little great frosting on the cake something little extra to enjoy and also the fastest goal scored by a substitute at the Asian Cup he was on he was on for 2-2.5 minutes I don't know if he touched the ball before he did that so I mean in terms of having an impact coming off the bench there is very little greater impact you can have and just see in terms of the options now the coach has you can start with a Nasri if it's not working for you you can throw in JJ to make the impact and you have someone like a Balwant if you need someone to just run at defenders keep on working for the steam so it's looking good for us I find over the years JJ has been applauded and criticised in equal measure he has a thing with weight gain as well sometimes he puts on a few pounds but what cannot be discounted is one as that goal showed and the fact that he connects telepathically with the other guys who are key to India's attacking line up so anyway on that note we haven't got his goal I'll go for the penalty since it's the opener right and smart thinking that was Chhetri's thinking Chhetri's thinking gets the ball Tristando is nowhere quick throw in, Kurunian gets it not penalty so why not any outran the defender there man just the fact that we got that first goal the amount of pick up it gave you know I'm sure the fans in this stadium must have been lifted to another level 250 250 that was the first time I dropped the laptop after that historical night I was there basically it'll be like one of those nights I was there I mean I was watching it India of course created history oh my god in about like 30 years I will actually be talking about this in yeah so just to I mean add my little bit and also make sure none of the goals are left out I'll pick Anirudh Thapa only because he's a young boy 20 years old his entire career lies ahead and hopefully he'll keep growing as we've seen him already do one game to the next he's growing in fashion confidence and his role in the team is also amplified and just that goal yesterday just sort of stamped that fact his arrival and the fact that then he was taken off by the coach because he's looking to again play him in that key role in the in the next game you know so this is a massive massive plus for India and on that joyous note bale bale thank you nobody thank you Arjun Pandit and Paul and Anand from the UAE for joining us thanks guys we'll be back with a preview of the game against the UAE day after tomorrow tune in for that until then thanks for watching