India is already among the top six of the teams competing in the third round of the 2027 Asian Cup qualifications, according to the most recent rankings, which were released on October 24.
Prior to his team’s international friendly against Malaysia in Hyderabad on Monday, Manolo Marquez, the coach of the India men’s senior squad, criticized the FIFA ranking system.
“I’m going to give you one thing to use as a headline (gestures).” The rating (system) is a deception, in my opinion. Even the worst African team is superior to the majority of teams on other continents. “We are above them (125) and not better than Cyprus (127),” Marquez told reporters.
“We can easily defeat teams that are superior to us. There are still a lot of points available if you lose one official match. You gain a lot of points if you win one friendly match.”
India is already among the top six of the teams competing in the third round of the 2027 Asian Cup qualifications, according to the most recent rankings, which were released on October 24. However, in order to be seeded in Pot 1 for the draw the following month, it must continue to do so in the upcoming rankings, which are due on November 28.
It goes without saying that you cannot compete with the world’s top teams. However, you check the teams that are lower in the rankings than us in the majority of the games. We were ranked lower than Vietnam. In reference to the 1-1 draw in India’s last game, Marquez stated, “But at last, the game was equal.”
Among the teams in the third round of qualifying, Malaysia (133) is the team with the second-closest ranking after India. It enters the game fresh off a 3-1 victory over Laos, which earned it crucial Elo points to increase its prospects of moving up the Asian rankings.
However, in their five meetings to date, India has won three and drawn the other two, meaning they have never lost to Malaysia at home.
“It doesn’t matter who your opponent is. It’s more about us. Playing against the bottom-ranked team would be incredibly simple for me if I didn’t win. However, this isn’t,” Marquez joked.
“We need to check our improvement. It is not a useful metric to compare our improvement when playing with a top team or a very inferior club. I believe you can assess the team’s performance when we play these kinds of games,” he continued.
