India aiming to do well at the AFC Women’s Asian Cup

As the 20th edition of the AFC Women's Asian Cup kicks off in Mumbai on January 20, Team India will be aiming to do well and qualify at least for the quarter-finals in the quadrennial event.

The women's premier football tournament from the continent will feature 12 teams this time around, four more from the last edition and is slated to get over on 6th February 2022.

The 12 teams have been split into three groups, with the top two teams of each group and the two best third-placed teams qualifying for the quarter-finals.

Placed in Group A are hosts India (55th in FIFA rankings) alongside China (ranked 19th), Chinese Taipei (ranked 39th), and Iran (ranked 70th). Group B consists of Australia (ranked 11th), Thailand (ranked 38th), Philippines (ranked 64th), and Indonesia (ranked 94th) while defending champions Japan (ranked 13th) find themselves in Group C along with South Korea (ranked 18th), Vietnam (ranked 32nd), and Myanmar (ranked 47th).

India will begin their campaign on January 20 against a lowly-ranked Iranian side, then they take on Chinese Taipei on January 23 and will play their last game against China on January 26, both higher-ranked sides in their four-pool team.

According to head coach Thomas Dennerby, the team will have to put their best show and play together as a unit if it needs to qualify for the quarter-finals.

“Ever since I took over, the focus has been to play together as a unit – knowing how, and when to press. We have reduced the number of long balls, and are now focusing on playing through the middle to penetrate. Our aim will be to qualify for the quarter-finals and take things forward from there onwards,” said Dennerby.

“We are happy with the preparations as we have working as we have been working hard for a long time. We have spent a long time working together with more than 200 sessions – tactical, technical, physical. We feel we are ready,” the head coach said.

The Indian team will be led by the experienced defender Ashalata Devi who hails from Manipur, the state which has the maximum representation (8) in the Indian squad.

Manipur is followed by Tamil Nadu which has five players and Haryana with three players in the team. Two players each come from Delhi and Odisha and the states of West Bengal, Punjab, Jharkhand have one representative each.

India had travelled to six countries in 2021 for exposure tours to prepare for the AFC Women’s Asian Cup 2022 which included tours to Brazil, Sweden, Turkey, Uzbekistan, Bahrain and USA.

According to skipper Ashalata Devi, the team has gained a lot during the exposure trips and was confident that the players will do well.

The championship will also serve as the final stage of qualifier for Asian countries for the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup to be held in Australia and New Zealand. Five top teams from this tournament will qualify for the main event directly while two of them will progress to the inter-confederation play-offs.

Due to the on-going Covid-19 pandemic, the tournament will be played behind closed doors without any spectators and in a bio-bubble environment with the three cities in Maharashtra - Mumbai, Navi Mumbai and Pune hosting the tournament. In the absence of spectators, Indian team will definitely miss the home advantage.

India had last hosted the AFC Women’s Asian Cup in 1979 and has been runners-up during 1979 and 1983 editions.