The Indian football team completed their brief stretch of six friendly games after a hard-fought defeat against Sweedish top division club Djurgårdens IF recently.
The Indian national women’s team is persevering for the AFC Women’s Asia Cup, which is set to be hosted by India from January 20 to February 6 in 2022. India as hosts, along with Japan, Australia, People’s Republic Of China, Chinese Taipei, Korea Republic, The Philippines, Islamic Republic of Iran, Indonesia, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam have confirmed their slots.
The national team was at work after a long gap as their last match was back on April 8th, against Belarus. Then coach Maymol Rocky resigned the position of the head coach citing personal reasons and Thomas Dennerby, who guided the U-17 world cup squad was given the place.
The team under the Sweedish gaffer started the training sessions in Jamshedpur, Jharkhand back in August with 30 players. Jharkhand has been supporting both the U-17 and senior national teams by hosting their camps and training sessions recently.
INDIA IN UAE
About a month later, the blue tigress left for the Arabian peninsula where the United. Arab. Emirates hosted two games. India played against the hosts and secured a comfortable 4-1 victory. The team also faced Tunisia, which resulted in a 0-1 loss.
INDIA IN BAHRAIN
The second destination on the list for the exposure tour was the island of Pearl’s, Bahrain, where the team tied boots against the national team of Bahrain and Chinese Taipei. India thrashed Bahrain to a 5-0 victory while a 1-0 victory to strong Chinese Taipei made it a perfect ending in Bahrain.
INDIA IN SWEEDEN
After an eventful stint in the middle-east, the team flew over to Sweeden, where they faced two Dammalsvenskan sides namely Hammarby IF (2-3) and Djurgarden respectively ( 0-1 ). The team lost both the games in narrow margins however valiant efforts were made on the field. The matches in Sweeden were also the only games in the series, which were telecasted on the Indian football team’s Facebook page.
Out of the six games, the team won three and lost three, where twelve goals were scored by eight different players and conceded six from the opponents.
Pyari Xaxa led the charts with three goals to her name, followed by Indumathi (2), Manisha Kalyan (2), and Sweety Devi, Anju Tamang, Sangita Basfore, Renu, Manisha Panna with a goal each added to the tally.
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