Sunil Chhetri Ends Retirement, India's Goal to Defeat Maldives and Bangladesh with Shutout Victories

Senior defender Sandesh Jhingan stated on Saturday that the Indian football team's goal is to defeat Maldives and Bangladesh without allowing any goals in the upcoming international matches in Shillong. The team will face Maldives in an international friendly on March 19, followed by a challenging match against Bangladesh on March 25 in their opening game of the 2027 AFC Asian Cup qualifying third round. Both matches will take place at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Shillong, marking the city's first time hosting international games. The match against Maldives will also see the return of the legendary Sunil Chhetri from retirement.

"Our main aim is to get the result in the Bangladesh match, as that would give us a good start in the Asian Cup Qualifiers, and I think the 10-day training ahead of that, along with the friendly against Maldives will greatly help us prepare for it," Jhingan said.

"Our target is two clean sheet victories," the 31-year-old was quoted as saying in an AIFF release.

The 40-year-old Chhetri had earlier hung his boots in June 2024 after a glorious international career after making his India debut in 2005.

But he showed he is still a force to reckon with as has been seen in the 2024-25 ISL which has turned out to be Chhteri's most prolific season.

He has scored 12 goals from 24 matches to be the second highest scorer overall and highest among Indians.

Head coach Manolo Marquez re-iterated the reasons behind why he coaxed Chhetri to return to wearing India jersey once again.

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"Because it was a special situation, I spoke with the AIFF and Bengaluru FC before I called him. I spoke with Sunil and explained to him what I wanted from him," Marquez said.

"It doesn't matter if he's 40. The national team needs players who are in good form," the Spaniard said.

India are placed in Group C of the 2027 Asian Cup qualifying third round along with Bangladesh, Hong Kong and Singapore, and only the top team qualifies for the continental showpiece.

It's is not going to be easy to top the group, and Marquez must be referring to that when he said "special situation".

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"Sunil is the Indian top-scorer in the ISL, with practically double goals than the next player, who is Brison. After that are Subhasish, Irfan, Manvir... all of them are here with us in the national team.

"We need players who score goals. In my four matches so far, we have only scored two goals - one of them from a set-piece. At this moment, the most important thing is to get results. Nothing else matters." The Indian squad held a 45-minute gym session on Saturday morning and had their first on-pitch training at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, the match venue, later in the evening.

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Meanwhile, key winger Lallianzuala Chhangte will not report to the national camp here after suffering an injury while with his Indian Super League club Mumbai City FC, the AIFF said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)