By Nilanjan Datta,
AIFF Media Team

TEHRAN: The Indian National squad landed safely at the Imam Khomeini International Airport on Monday (March 21) evening.

Its festive time in Tehran and despite the New Year celebrations keeping the spirits of the locals high, the skies have stayed gloomy. The Mountain peaks which stare at you in the proximity within the City have their Peaks covered with snow, threatening to spread with very single minute. It’s cold.

“Yeah, the temperatures here are much cooler than what we had in Delhi. We need to settle down fast,” National Coach Stephen Constantine mentioned to www.the-aiff.com.

As per the schedule, the Indian Team would be having two practice sessions in Tehran before facing ‘Giants of Asia’ Iran at the majestic Azadi Stadium on March 24 (Thursday).

But the National Coach couldn’t hide his disappointment at “not being allowed to train” at the Azadi Stadium for two days.

“When Iran came over to Bengaluru, we allowed them to train at the match venue for two days expecting that you would receive the same treatment. When you extend courtesies you would always like to be repaid, no matter what,” he stated.

“But to our surprise we are being denied to train at the match venue (the Azadi Stadium) for two days.” he uttered. “It was understandable that we would also be training at the match venue for two days simply because we had allowed the Iranian National Team to train at the venue for two days.”

Apart from the “denial of training at the match venue,” it has so far been good for the Indian contingent on arrival.

“We were received well at the Airport and the transfer to the Team Hotel was smooth. My Assistant Coach (Lee Johnson) came here in advance and sorted everything out,” he maintained. “The Hotel is a decent one and we look forward to our sessions and the match.”

Meanwhile, Goalkeeper Gurpreet Singh Sandhu has also joined the squad in Tehran.

Outdoors, the gloom persists. Even if you missed the Snow and rush to the balcony to have a look, the Peaks have been covered by clouds by then. Your wait continues.