SAFF Championship: Pakistan coach Shahzad Anwar praises Bengaluru infra, thanks AIFF for hosting

THE PAKISTAN HEAD COACH Shahzad Anwar said he his team was in a re-building phase and needed more game time to produce better results, and the SAFF Championship provided some useful experience for them.

Speaking to reporters after Pakistan's 0-1 loss to Nepal in their final Group A game, the coach responded to falling out of the tournament without a win saying,

"As you know, Pakistan Football Federation is in a rebuilding phase... we had a strong group with India and Kuwait but against Nepal we had a good game... step by step we are improving."

He emphasized on the need for the Pak Shaheens to play more matches,

"We need matches. The more matches, the better it will be for us... we have the FIFA window in September so we would like to arrange two games... and continue our preparation for the World Cup Qualifiers."

He also praised the infrastructure and facilities the team was provided with in Bengaluru, and thanked the AIFF for hosting them,

"Regarding India, we are pleased to be here participating in the tournament... facilities were good, we are thankful to the Indian football federation for hosting the Pakistan football team in India and we are thankful to the fans for supporting us."

Asked about the need for the players in this squad to spend more time together as a team, Coach Anwar said,

"You are right, we need more time to make major improvements... as you know we only get these players during FIFA windows. So we will try requesting the clubs to send the players ten-fifteen days before, so we can train with the team longer and have a chance to win some matches."

Pakistan are set to play in the first round of the FIFA World Cup & AFC Asian Cup Joint Qualifiers in October, and they have one more FIFA window to play matches in preparations for that.

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