India to give match time to new players in women’s football friendly against Jordan 

By PTI

JORDAN: Indian women’s football team head coach Thomas Dennerby is set to give match time to more players in the second international friendly against hosts Jordan here on Friday. The Indian team beat Egypt 1-0 on Tuesday and will now follow it up with a match against Jordan.

“We are trying to build for the longer term. We need to start giving match time to the younger players. The focus is not so much on the results, though we do want to win,” said head coach Thomas Dennerby.

“The main focus is on performance and giving opportunities to young players.” One youngster who certainly shone for the Blue Tigresses on a match that was her senior international debut was midfielder Priyangka Devi, who scored the winner against Egypt.

“It was a memorable night for me against Egypt. It was my first match for the senior team, and I also managed to score the goal for my country, which makes it all the more special,” said Priyangka.

“I hope to continue in this form and do greater things for my nation,” she added. Dennerby further highlighted the importance of using the FIFA windows to play international matches.

“It’s a good way to start playing games again. A small three-nation tournament ” there is no special reason behind it other than to build for the future,” said Dennerby.

The aim should be to play games in every open FIFA window and add some extra games before competitions. That is normally enough.

“On the basis of FIFA rankings, Jordan is a much better team at 63rd as against 59th of India. On the other hand, Egypt, which India beat 1-0 on Tuesday, is ranked 95th.

The match against Egypt was the first one for India since it was forced to withdraw from the group stage of the AFC Asian Cup in January after it failed to field a team due to a Covid-19 outbreak inside its bio-bubble in Mumbai.