3 Things We Learned From India's Victory over Myanmar

23 Mar 2023 | Written By Shyam Sundar

India started the Hero Tri-Nation series with a 1-0 win over Myanmar courtesy of a Anirudh Thapa goal in first half injury-time. The scoreline does not say the full story as India were very dominant in the attack, but failed to convert their chances. Coach Igor Stimac mentioned that Sunil Chhetri should have had a hat-trick as Sunil got multiple chances but failed to convert any of them. The refreeing was also not upto the mark as India were denied a couple of blatant penalties and Sunil Chhetri's goal was wrongly disallowed for offside.

There were a lot of positives to take from the game for Igor Stimac and his boys. We look at three things that we learned from the game:

#3 Mahesh Singh should start against Kyrgyzstan

Local lad Mahesh Singh made his International debut as he replaced Bipin Singh around the 70 minute mark. Mahesh had a very impactful outing in his debut and impressed coach Igor Stimac. His dribbling and ball control was on point and looked confident and assured eveytime he had the ball under his feet. Bipin's crossing was not upto the mark in the first half, and as the game went on he faded away. Mahesh should be given the nod to start against Kyrgyzstan as he looks more threatening than Bipin at the moment.

Those last 15 minutes were fun. Mahesh Singh made it worth it. Remains to be seen how many minutes he will get against Kyrgyzstan.
— Chetan (@Chetan__Anand) March 22, 2023

#2 Thapa is a different player at National Team

It's fair to say Anirudh Thapa has had his struggles with his club Chennaiyin FC over the last few years. He has never been able to give consistent perfomances and has also been unlucky with the injuries. But whenever Thapa steps on to the field in National colors, he has always given his best and looks a completely different player. This was Thapa's fourth goal for the National Team and his first goal in home soil. Along with his goal, Thapa also created the most chances by any outfield player in the first half and was sharp with his passing. The real test will be against a superior opposition like Kyrgyzstan and it will be intersting to see how he plays against them.

#1 Manipur should host more matches

One of the biggest talking points of yesterday's game was the home support for the blue tigers. AIFF President Kalyan Chaubey mentioned that the matches were hosted in Manipur beacause he wants to take Indian Football to every nook and corner of the country. And it has certainly paid off as almost 30,000 fans attended the game and supported the blues. The stadium looked full 80 minutes before the kick-off as the fans were in earky to cheer the blues. Manipur has always produced exceptional talents for the Indian Football team and is one of India's footballing powerhouse. It was good to see the National Team play at the Khuman Lampak for the first time and the crowd reception was also amazing.

Don't know who will win the match but football fans of Manipur have won all the hearts@IndSuperLeague are you seeing this? This is 80 minutes before kick-off

AIFF did a slam dunk, bringing #BlueTigers here

This is how you showcase #indianfootball.#BackTheBlue #HeroTriNation
— Chiranjit Ojha (@ChiranjitOjha) March 22, 2023