'Indian soccer needs time to match best in Asia'

Bahrain football coach Salman Sharida feels India are emerging as a good team but will need time to match the best in Asia.

"India are a very good team. They played very well in the tournament. But they will take time to rise among the top countries in Asia. They need experience," Sarida, who was earlier the coach of Pakistan national side from 2005 to 2007, said.

"India played very well against us. But Bahrain played better. We had many chances and scored five. India had two chances and they scored," he added.

Sharida said that India even threatened to make a comeback in the second half.

"We had fighting spirit and scored from the chances that we had and we almost had the game won by the end of the first half. But at half time I warned the players that our opponents would come out fighting and in the second half India nearly threatened a comeback.

Defender Ebrahim Meshkhas said it was a difficult game, especially in the second half.

"It was a difficult game for us early on when they scored a goal against us. But we were determined to play better because we didn't play a very good game against Korea," he said.

"We played very well in the first half and got a good lead. But we came out very cold after half-time and they scored a second goal," he added.