It was a historic day for Indian football as no club from the country has ever made it to the summit clash of the prestigious second-tier continental tournament.
The pressure of expectations was immense but ace Indian striker and captain Sunil Chhetri said Bengaluru FC did not target history while playing against Johor Darul Ta'zim in a crucial AFC Cup match in Bengaluru on Wednesday.
The Club eventually created history by becoming the first Indian football club to make it into AFC Cup final after beating the defending champions 3-1 on Wednesday. "I am not in a position to talk about what this win means for Indian football. Before the match, there had been a lot of talk about no Indian club had made it into the finals. But there has been no such talk in our team. We treated this match as any other match," he told reporters.
Replying to a query, Chhetri said the best part about BFC is that it is like a closely knit family and everyone, right from the ball boys to the head coach, wants to work hard and improve. Talking about the coach, Chhetri said all the players have learnt a lot from Albert Roca even as he has a different style of coaching from Ashley Westwood, his predecessor.
Each players executed his plans on the pitch, as the players believe that a team can only win if they implement the coach's ideas, Chhetri said. Chhetri said the team could score three goals because of aggressive style of play.
"The reason we could score as many as three goals is that we played a sheer dominating game. As I had said earlier too, goals comes your way, you only need to keep trying," he said.
Roca said it is a great day because India is not just a cricket country any more. He also praised Chhetri by saying that the Indian striker is a good captain and played a big part in 's win.
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