India football captain Sunil Chhetri, 39, was in the mood to execute some fierce volleys, albeit of the verbal nature, after his team qualified for the knockout stage against all odds with a 1-1 draw against Myanmar in their last league match at the Xiaoshan Sports Centre Stadium on Sunday night. India lost to China 1-5 in the opener before beating Bangladesh 1-0.

The Indian men’s team were initially not picked for this Asiad after they didn’t meet the Sports Ministry’s ranking criteria. However, after some heavy lobbying things changed, but then some of the Indian Super League clubs refused to release their players citing ISL and AFC Champions League commitments. So, an inexperienced team was picked with Chhetri named skipper and just two other senior players, Sandesh Jhinghan and goalkeeper Gurpreet Singh for company.