Indian women’s football team is eyeing on the miracle in the upcoming AFC Women’s Asia Cup 2022

Football in India has been sidelined by the majority of viewers, but still there are a lot of people who follow and love the Indian Football. Since the last few years Indian Men`s Football team is performing up to the best of their ability, but the women`s football has been sidelined, but now it’s the perfect time for the Indian Women`s Football team to prove their worth as they are going to play AFC Women`s Asia Cup in 2022.

The pandemic came in as a disaster for everyone around the world including the livelihoods, families, domestic structures and the sporting calendars as many major football and other supporting events got postponed due to the pandemic, but after a lot of work now everything is coming back to the normal as slowly and steadily every sporting event has been scheduled again with proper restrictions.

Thomas Dennerby to take charge as Head Coach of Indian Senior Women’s Team 🇮🇳

Read here 👉 https://t.co/MP62saunLS#IndianFootball ⚽ #BackTheBlue 💙 #ShePower 👧 #IndianFootballForwardTogether 💪 pic.twitter.com/RymWsN2tPk

— Indian Football Team (@IndianFootball) August 13, 2021

After the pandemic AFC Women`s Asia Cup would be the first event that Indian Women`s team will play. India will start their tour today against Iran in Navi Mumbai. Even before the play Covid has managed to breach the bio-bubble of 2022 AFC Women`s Asia Cup.

“I hope not (about players getting infected) but if such a situation arises, AFC has contingency plans,” ‘Patel’ the chairman of the Local Organizing Committee said this few days back.

The federation has announced on the eve of the match that two female athletes in the Indian camp tested Covid-19 positive.

Two members of the Indian Women’s Senior National Team for the AFC Women’s Asian Cup India 2022 have tested positive for Covid-19, and are currently in isolation at a designated medical care facility,” AIFF tweeted.

Indian women`s team has played the likes of Brazil and Chile in the friendly matches and has faced a brutal defeat of 3-0 by Chile in one of the friendly matches.

Group-A includes teams like India, China, Chinese Taipei and Iran with Iran as the most-winnable game for India as Iran is the only team of the group who ranked below India, whereas, Chine are the eight time winners.

“This is the moment we’ve been preparing for over the past six months. We’ve had over 200 sessions, a number of matches against quality opponents across four countries, and now it’s time to implement all the things that we have been working on,” said Dennerby. “We had a small meet with the players and we explained to them how important the coming few weeks are in their lives. I think this has really struck a few chords, and you can now see the determination in their eyes,” he revealed.

“I think we have all grown together as a squad. We had started with our camp in Jharkhand, and also played a number of matches abroad against some tough opponents, before moving base to Kerala. We’ve all been training with one goal in mind, and the entire squad is now focused on the job ahead,” said Sumati.

“We have had a lot of help from the more experienced players, who have shown us the way in a lot of things, especially in various off-the-field aspects that could later help us,” she added.

Indian team will begin their campaign today on January 20 against Iran, at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai, and then they will face Chinese Taipei on January 23, at the same venue, the final group match of Indian women`s team will take place on 26 January at Mumbai Football Arena. The matches will be broadcasted live on Eurosport and streamed live on Jio TV.

 

The Squad:

 

GOALKEEPERS: Aditi Chauhan, Maibam Linthoingambi Devi,  Sowmiya Narayanasamy.

DEFENDERS: Dalima Chhibber, Sweety Devi Ngangbam, Ritu Rani, Loitongbam Ashalata Devi, Manisa Panna, Hemam Shilky Devi, Sanju Yadav.

MIDFIELDERS: Yumnam Kamala Devi, Anju Tamang, Karthika Angamuthu, Nongmeithem Ratanbala Devi, Naorem Priyangka Devi, Indumathi Kathiresan.

FORWARDS: Manisha Kalyan , Grace Dangmei , Pyari Xaxa , Renu, Sumati Kumari, Sandhiya Ranganathan, Mariyammal Balamurugan.

HEAD COACH: Thomas Dennerby.