Bangalore: Faced with an uphill task of carving out at least a morale boosting victory, the Indian football team will take on reigning Asian champions Japan in their penultimate encounter in the AFC Asian Cup qualifying league in Bangalore on Wednesday.
India, which had a pathetic dry run, losing all the four matches it played in Group A, is hoping to put up a combined effort as a team in this match, despite being out of the reckoning from the Asian championship.
All eyes are on India's skipper Baichung Bhutia, as the team expects him to pull off some miracle to outsmart Japan, which has already qualified for the next round with nine points along with Saudi Arabia.
The 10-day camp, which the Indians had ahead of Wednesday's game, has helped them fine tune their skills and understand themselves.
The Irish footballer, Bob Houghton, who has been coaching the Indian side, said "it is a tough task against Japan... India is playing against a good team."
Houghton has finalised a strategy for India, which he hoped would counter the skilful Japanese side.
The coach feels the side could put up a good show with Sandip Nandy as the custodian, Surkumar Singh, Deepak Mondal, Sanjiv Maria and N S Manju as defenders and Renedy Singh in the midfield. Bhutia and Manjit Singh in the striking line, could certainly bring results, he added.
India will play its last match in the league against Yemen next month.
Japan's coach Ivica Osim said his team would not take India lightly and would go all out for a win.
Pointing to India's show against Saudia Arabia, particularly in the first half of the match, he said: "India is progressing well. It can try to put more pressure on our team."
Japan had a practice session on Tuesday morning at the Karnataka State Football Stadium.
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