New Delhi: India coach Stephen Constantine believes his side have been handed a tricky tie after being drawn to face Laos in the play-offs of the 2019 AFC Asian Cup qualifiers.
Having finished bottom of Group D in the second round of qualifying, the Blue Tigers were sent straight to the play-offs, along with ten other teams, for one final chance of advancing to the third and final round.
On Thursday, they discovered their fate after the draw at AFC House in Kuala Lumpur pitted them against Laos, who finished bottom of Group G with four points from their eight second-round qualifiers.
Given they are currently 20 places above their upcoming opponents in the latest FIFA world rankings, which were also released on Thursday, India will head into the two legs on June 2 and 7 as slight favourites.
However, Constantine (pictured, in white shirt) has warned his charges they can ill afford to underestimate the Laotians.
“It is a tricky draw,” he said, on the official website of the All India Football Federation (AIFF).
“Laos are never to be underestimated. They (were) in a very difficult group in the (second round) and gave (a) good account of themselves considering the teams they faced.
“We will have to be at our best.”
In the previous round, Laos did manage to record a number of respectable results despite being tipped to struggle, including 2-0 defeats to Kuwait and Lebanon, as well as a 2-2 draw with Myanmar.
Meanwhile, India’s solitary victory in Group D was a 1-0 triumph over Guam but they also showed they were not totally out of their depth, with their biggest defeat a 4-0 loss away to Iran, who are currently the top-ranked team in Asia.
The winner of each play-off (total five teams) will advance to the AFC Asian Cup UAE 2019 Qualifiers Final Round while the remaining five losing teams will join Bhutan in Qualifiers Play-off 2 (total six teams).
In Qualifiers Play-off 2, to be held over two legs on September 6 and October 11, the six teams will form three pairings and play home and away matches against each other and the winner of each pairing (total three teams) will advance to Qualifiers Final Round.
Qualifiers Play-Off I
PO 1.1 - Chinese Taipei v Cambodia
PO 1.2 - Maldives v Yemen
PO 1.3 - Tajikistan v Bangladesh
PO 1.4 - Malaysia v Timor-Leste
PO 1.5 - Laos v India
Qualifiers Play-Off II
PO 2.1 - Losing Team PO 1.2 v Losing Team 1.5
PO 2.2 - Losing Team PO 1.3 v Bhutan
PO 2.3 - Losing Team v PO 1.4 v Losing Team PO 1.1
Source: the-afc.com