The angst in national football team coach Igor Stimac's voice could not be missed when he said rest of the teams were already in Dubai for the past three weeks acclimatising to the conditions in the Gulf.

Stimac was reacting when at least two mediapersons said India were the first team to arrive in Doha for the AFC Asian Cup. The Croat had asked for at least four weeks of preparatory camp before the Asian Cup but instead got even less than 14 days.

“We will have nine football training sessions on the pitch. So, the training schedule is organised with two working days, four sessions, followed by the rest third day. So, that will be our schedule until the first game. We are going to have one game between us on the 7th (January) just six days prior to the first game, to see where we stand at the moment,” the Croat told a virtual news conference on Sunday.

Stimac is a proponent of longer camps and results say he is right. A month-long camp before the Asian Cup Qualifiers in June 2022 saw India qualifying for the Asian Cup, while a similar camp helped Sunil Chhetri and Co. win the Inter-Continental Cup and SAFF Championship last June-July.

In Qatar, India are placed in Group B with Australia, Uzbekistan and Syria. The 102-ranked side hardly holds any chance of qualifying for the knockouts barring a miracle. That's why Stimac sees this as a prelude to the World Cup qualifiers against Afghanistan to be held in March. If India manage to advance to the third round it will be a big boost to Indian football.

"We are rank outsiders in our group. We need to find stability, we will try to play fearless football notwithstanding the teams we play against. I don't mind the final results. Our final goal is to qualify for the third round of World Cup qualifiers," he said from Doha.

Talking about former England player Trevor Sinclair's involvement with the national team squad Stimac said: "Sinclair has been brought in to help the team in set pieces. First, we have to work on how to stop conceding goals from set pieces, and then look to score from set pieces."