Bangladesh wary of Sunil Chhetri threat

KOLKATA: Ahead of their crucial World Cup qualifier against India at Salt Lake Stadium, Bangladesh assistant coach Stuart Watkiss warned the hosts of a tough and competitive game.Bangladesh will go into Tuesday's clash on the back of a 0-2 loss to Qatar in Dhaka in their last match. They had earlier lost 0-1 to Afghanistan in their campaign opener.On the other hand, India started off with a 1-2 loss to Oman, before coming up with a strong performance in the second game by holding reigning Asian champions Qatar to a goalless draw.However, the hosts suffered a jolt ahead of the Bangladesh tie with injury to defender Sandesh Jhingan."Maybe, it's a little advantage to us that a defender is not playing... But we are still expecting a strong challenge," Watkiss said after team's training on Saturday."We deserved something out of the game (versus Qatar). We created more chances than Qatar and possibly had the best opportunities."We think we can give India really good, tough and competitive game. If we can get to the level of our game against Qatar again, then it should be a terrific game," he added.India will be boosted by the return of skipper Sunil Chhetri, who missed the Group E match against Qatar in Doha due to illness and Watkiss believes the talismanic striker will pose a threat to the visitors' defensive line."Obviously, Sunil is the most dangerous player because of the amount of goals he has scored," Watkiss, who was in charge of the former I-League club Bharat FC, said."He's a super player with a super goal-scoring record. He doesn't have many weaknesses... Of late, he seems to have gone from strength to strength. It will be a challenge for our team (to stop him)," the 53-year-old coach said.Bangladesh midfielder Mamunul Islam, who signed for ISL side ATK in 2014 but did not play any game, said the youngsters in the side could make some difference."Our defensive shape is good. We are good on the counter. There are young players who can spring surprise. We have been let down by our finishing a bit. We need to work on that and we are ready to give India a fight," 30-year-old Mamunul said.After having served the nation for 13 years, Mamunul revealed he is planning for his retirement."I will talk to the team management and I might call it a day after Bangladesh play India at home," he signed off.