Igor Stimac, the national football team coach, said Afghanistan pose the biggest threat in India’s quest for Asian Cup qualification.

The third and final round of the Qualifiers in Calcutta will see Sunil Chhetri and Co. taking on Cambodia, Afghanistan and Hong Kong on June 8, 11 and 14, respectively, at the Salt Lake Stadium.

“Afghanistan are much physical and stronger. They have opened their borders for players to participate in foreign leagues. Those are not leagues of that high stature but they have good organised football throughout the year,” Stimac said during a one-hour-45-minute interaction with select media here on Tuesday.

Stimac warned that Hong Kong would also be no pushovers. “They have changed rules and brought in foreigners. We will see how much they have improved. And talking about Cambodia, I think they would sit back. So that will be a different challenge,” he said.

Stimac has drawn criticisms for some lacklustre performances — the 0-2 loss to Jordan in a friendly last week was the latest setback — but when asked to look back on his three-year association with India, he said the national team under him did not fail.

“I would say we didn’t fail and we kept ourselves alive in difficult circumstances, while changing the team systematically. We do stand a chance for the future. We have to first make sure that we qualify for the Asian Cup and we are very close to doing that. ‘At the end of that campaign, we will have a group of players with good age and enough experience.

“That’s what we are looking for. Did we expect more than what we did? Yes — but we didn’t fail,’’ said Stimac. “In the three years you are talking about, two we lost to the pandemic. We had to play our home matches abroad in a bio-bubble.”

Stimac gave some updates on the squad. “Liston Colaco (of ATK Mohun Bagan) came with a muscle injury and his career would be at risk if we push him. That’s the problem a national coach faces.

“When you do planning you rely on players in their best forms. Liston has the ability to provide quality passes and can score goals but now we have to think differently. Then (defender) Ritwick Das has been ruled out with chicken pox and Deepak Tangri (of ATK Mohun Bagan) has been drafted in.”

Stimac, 54, said even though the Indian Super League (ISL) provided a good stage, there is need to protect youngsters getting good salaries.

“Salaries bring comfort and comfort brings weakness, weakness brings possible problems of disappearing soon,” he said.