Soumo Ghosh
AIFF Media Team

HYDERABAD: The second game of the Intercontinental Cup will see Syria take on Mauritius at the GMC Balayogi Athletic Stadium in Hyderabad on Friday, September 6, 2024, at 19:30 IST. The match will be streamed live on JioCinema.

After holding India to a goalless draw with a resolute performance on Tuesday evening, Mauritius, the lowest-ranked team in the tournament, have grabbed a lot of eyeballs. Head coach Guillaume Moullec believed the experience of playing against stronger Asian sides is valuable for his team, who are using the matches as preparation for their upcoming FIFA World Cup Qualifiers.

"For us, it's very enriching. We are still learning and playing against teams that are higher-ranked.  The next match is going to be more complicated. So our idea is to try to progress and test ourselves against better nations with more experienced players," said the French coach.

Captain Lyndsay Rose, who was named the Player of the Match against India, said, "First of all, it was an honour to be the player of the match but it's not the most important. We worked all together as a team and this is the Mauritius spirit. It also brings us a lot of confidence for the next game against Syria. We want to keep this compactness in the defence. But also, as a team, we love to play football and we will try to play better with the ball, to keep the ball and to disturb them as much as we can.

"It will be a very difficult game against Syria. They are also fresh, they didn't play the last game. They had time to prepare themselves. But we are also here to progress, to test ourselves and to show the best of ourselves. We are competitors and we want to win this tournament with humility and respect," the defender added.

Moullec expects the Syria game to be a different challenge than India and also hinted at rotations in his team. "We won't have the same strategy because we adapt to the opponent. It will change a little bit. But the idea is to keep the same principle. We will try to improve the set-up against Syria, we will also improve on the lack of play with the ball in the middle. As we are in a development phase, there will be changes because the main thing is to be able to test. The idea is to test a lot of player combinations," he said.

At 93rd, Syria are the highest-ranked team in the tournament. Like India, they too have a new Spanish coach at the helm, with José Lana taking charge just two weeks ago. Ahead of Lana's debut with the national team, defender Aiham Ousou said, "I'm looking forward to it a lot. We have a new coach, a new staff. We are very excited for them to be here. I think they have some good ideas that will help this national team. The players are on different stages. Some have started the league, some have not. I think we have good video analysis, we have already had one training and today we have another one, so we will practice more and we are just excited to see what we can bring."

Lana revealed that there are a few fitness problems in the squad, however, he still expects his men to give a good showing. "We have some players with problems, they are not working with anything right now. They are working by themselves, and we'll see what we can do tomorrow. But we hope to do a good job," said the 49-year-old.

Referring to Mauritius' strong showing against India in the opener, Lana added that there are no favourites in the tournament. "I think that we have to talk on the pitch. I don't think that any team is better than another. I think we have good players. I like them a lot. They have a way to work. They want to show how good they are. More than 30 million people want to see them on the pitch defending their shirt."

Oussou, who plays his club football for Royal Charleroi SC in Belgium, concurred with his new coach. "We respect every team that's playing against us, but for us I think it's more about ourselves, what we can bring, because I know with the quality we have, the coaching staff we have, if we perform like we plan, then I think we will play a good game. We have respect for the team, but we will play our game."