Mandalay (Myanmar): Indian women’s football team will have their task cut out when they take on hosts Mynamar in a do-or-die Round 2 Olympic Qualifiers match here on Tuesday.
India are on the verge of securing qualification from Round 2 with only the hosts standing in their way.
The permutations and combinations are clear. Only a win for India will take them through to the next round of qualifiers, with only one team progressing from the Group A of Round 2 AFC Olympic Qualifiers.
“We know it is a must win match for us. That is it. This is the big moment that we have all been waiting for when we started our preparation in December last year for the Round 2 qualifiers, and we aim to make it count,” said India coach Maymol Rocky.
Though level on points, 6 each, Myanmar have a goal difference of +8, as compared to India’s +4 in the two matches played so far, which means it’s do-or-die for India.
“We have always taken one match at a time. We will do so against Myanmar too. We are aware of the quality they possess. We will have to be on the top of our game if we are to secure qualification. We know what is at stake. The next 90 minutes have the power to define women’s football back in India,” Maymol said.
“We knew this moment would come when the groups for the Round 2 Qualifiers were announced. We knew this would boil down to this — India against Myanmar. In all our 14 international matches we have prepared keeping this scenario somewhere at the back of our minds,” she added.
History seems to favour Myanmar. The last two encounters have ended both in Myanmar’s favour with the visitors winning 2-1 in Olympic Qualifiers Round 1 in November 2018, and 2-0 in the Hero Gold Cup held in Bhubaneswar. (IANS)
