Individual errors cost us the game: Indian football coach

After Indian football team lost the match against New Zealand in the Intercontinental Cup, head coach Stephen Constantine has said that "individual errors cost India the game."

India slumped to a shocking 1-2 defeat to New Zealand at the Mumbai Football Arena on Thursday.

Expressing disappointment over India crashing to their first defeat in three matches, Constantine said, "When you win two matches back-to-back sometimes you get carried away."

Constantine was referring to India's 5-0 win over Chinese Taipei and 3-0 win over Kenya in the first two matches of the tournament.

He further said that New Zealand were disciplined and that India made some mistakes and let two silly goals in because of two individual errors.

He added: "Sometimes we acted naïve and made costly mistakes. These are the things that we need to rectify."

India started the game with as many as seven changes to the starting line-up which defeated Kenya 3-0. "We gave young guys, who did not play an opportunity to play and that is why this tournament is good for us because we also have to shuffle our ranks and test permutations."

"We are using the games we have between now and the AFC Asian Cup to prepare for the Continental Championship and hence, we were always going to change the team and give younger players a chance to play," he added.