India must win

After losing their first match to arch-rivals Pakistan 0-1, defending champions India will go all out to win in their second Group A match against tournament's new entrants Afghanistan at the Bangabandhu National Stadium today.

Pakistan meanwhile appear in the day's first match against Sri Lanka with a soaring confidence after beating India for the first time in their football history.

Shell-shocked Indians will be in no mood to show the Afghans any mercy as they must have to win in order to keep their semifinal hopes alive.

"We have to win both the matches against Afghanistan and Sri Lanka if we are to play in the last four," said Indian coach Stephen Constantine after his team's practice yesterday.

The English coach promised Indians would do anything and everything possible to come out victors against Afghanistan, who went down 1-0 to Sri Lanka on Friday.

But injuries kept haunting the top ranked Indians. Two of their key players -- Subhash Chakraborty and Alvito D'Cunha -- refrained from the yesterday's training session at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium due to minor injuries.

India, who had to leave their four regular players back home including superstar Baichung Bhutia, might find it hard to field a winning combination if Chakraborty and D'Cunha miss today's match.

Understandably, Constantine declined to reveal his team for today's match.

Afghanistan, who played their first match without any practice because of their late arrival, had a session together at the Army Stadium in Banani yesterday. Five of their Germany-based footballers arrived in the city separately and they did not even see their teammates before.

Sri Lanka meanwhile are likely to miss the service of their injured defender Nalind Nandakumara in today's match against Pakistan.

The islanders practised at the BUET ground and Pakistan went to Army Stadium for training afternoon yesterday.