Sunil Chhetri, who sat the game out due to fever, praised his teammates after a gritty display against the Asian Champions Qatar in Doha.
Despite playing without their talismanic captain Sunil Chhetri who was laid low by fever, the young Indians denied Qatar, who won the Asian Cup title in January.
Sunil Chhetri's splendid first-half strike went in vain as India surrendered a one-goal advantage to lose the home-leg game 1-2.
Despite a majority of the players being young, Sunil Chhetri said all are "well aware" of what is expected of them.
Chhetri said the country still needs to do a lot of work to narrow the gap with the Asian powers and reach the top 10 in the continent.
Jong Il Gwan (8th and 29th minute), Sim Hyon Jin (16th), Ri Un Chol (63rd) and Ri Jin (90+2) scored for North Korea while Lallianzuala Chhangte (51st) and captain Sunil Chhetri (61st) reduced the margin for India.
Chhetri said that the whole team was working hard to bounce back from the defeat and stressed on the importance of keeping calm.
Indian football team's captain Sunil Chhetri was appreciative of the side's efforts after India lost to New Zealand in the semifinal of the 2019 World Cup.
India will take on Tajikistan on July 7 in the first game of the Intercontinental Cup. Syria and DPR Korea are the other two teams participating.
A technically superior Curacao defeated India, who will now play for a third-place play-off.
Indian men's football team captain Sunil Chhetri, as well as women footballers Aditi Chauhan and Dalima Chhibber joined in to wish the cricket team luck.
India has announced the 23-member squad for the King's Cup tournament in Thailand.
Igor Stimac earlier stated that Sunil Chhetri will have to fight for his spot like any other player in the team.
India's football team coach Igor Stimac has warned that players won't be selected on reputation.
The second edition of the Intercontinental Cup will take place in Ahmedabad. India are the defending champions.
The 51-year-old Stimac, who was part of Croatia's 1998 World Cup squad that finished third in France, was on Wednesday officially appointed as head coach of the Indian team.
Igor Stimac has selected a 37-member squad for the preparatory camp for King's Cup in Thailand.
Virat Kohli had invited Sunil Chhetri to the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, where RCB are training ahead of their IPL 2019 opener against CSK.
Bengaluru FC had lost last year's final to Chennaiyin FC and captain Sunil Chhetri was determined to win the ISL this year.
Alongside Gambhir and Chhetri, archer Bombayla Devi Laishram and Prashanti Singh got the fourth highest civilian honour.
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