The Blue Tigers are set to square off against Curacao in the opening match of the King's Cup in Thailand on June 5. The fixture is a monumental one for Indian football considering it will be new head coach Igor Stimac's first match in charge of the Indian national team.

The Croatian faced the media at the pre-match press conference a day prior to the clash. The 51-year-old shared his excitement for being able to start off his journey with the Blue Tigers with a historic tournament like the King's Cup and said, "First of all, I would like to say that we are glad to participate in such a big tournament with great tradition and we will do our best to play good football in the two games which are to follow."

Stimac then touched upon how his experience with the Indian team has been so far and revealed the main objective of his long-term project. "I’m really excited with the work my players have put in over the past 11-12 days. The full team and the AIFF are very excited about the new approach we have taken. I hope this long-term project will bring us success and is going to bring India back as a force in Asian football," he said.

Depending on the result of their match against Curacao and the other opening day match between Thailand and Vietnam, India will play either one of the latter two teams in the second match - in the final or third-place playoff - on June 8. Asked if he had done any homework on the other two teams in the tournament, Stimac stated, "For the last few days, we have been watching some clips of Curacao, who are our first opponent here. So, if we do well, and I hope we do well, then we are going to think about who the next opponent is. Only then are we going to analyze and find out more about their players and their team’s collective game."

Curacao are the best-ranked team in the tournament and possibly the toughest draw the Blue Tigers could have hoped for in the four-nation affair. Speaking about just how big a challenge Remko Bicentini's Curacao side will be, the 1998 World Cup semi-finalist said, "The quicker we face the better ones, the better for us. We are going to find out more about our strengths, how far we have come in the past weeks. We are really looking forward to this game."

"We know that Curacao players, all of them, have played in the Eredivisie. Most of them play at the highest level. But that’s quite a motivation for our players because we are going to find out how much more work we need to put in to progress," he added.

Pushed for some hints about the playing style he wants to instil in the team, Stimac remarked, "Everybody would love to play like Spain or France but that’s not possible. For many of us, it’s a long way to get to that stage. But we have our way. We have chosen that kind of (a positive) way. But we also have to think that we need to play football which will get us the results. My players know very well I insist on quick passing, I insist on quick movements."

India's talismanic striker Sunil Chhetri, who is due to become the nation's most capped players if he plays in the Curacao match, accompanied Stimac to the briefing and chimed in with his thoughts about the upcoming tournament. "I think we are more confident because of the way we have trained. What happened in the AFC Asian Cup is in the past. We are under new leadership. It has been 10, 12 days since we are training under Stimac and the new coaching staff. The whole team and me, personally, are really looking forward to it."

"We have done something good in the last 3-4 years and we are really looking forward to doing much more in the coming years. No matter how much we improve, it will always be less because we want to go a long way. We will keep our head down and keep trying to impress ourselves as a team," he added.

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