CHENNAI: The Indian women’s U17 football team head coach Pamela Conti may have finally seen her girls play in line with her philosophy as they trounced Lebanon 4-0 to qualify to the knockouts of the AFC Women’s U17 Asian Cup in Suzhou on Friday. After the final whistle of the match, the Indian dugout was visibly ecstatic. The players on the pitch were emotional as they knew they created history.
With that win, India entered the knockout stage of any Asian Cup tournament for the first time since the men’s U16 team entered in 2018. In women's football, India have entered the knockouts of an Asian tournament for the first time since the U19 AFC women's championship in 2004.
With Conti, her description of her footballing ideas is simple. Defend the Italian way and attack the Spanish way. And in a must-win game, the Young Tigresses played just like the Italian coach wanted. After losing games to Australia (0-2) and 2024 runners-up Japan (0-3), India knew that they had to go all-guns blazing against debutants Lebanon. Lebanon, meanwhile, were coming into this tie with confidence after holding Australia to a 1-1 draw.
India exerted pressure on their opponents on the get go, as the ball was launched deep into the opposition territory. Then followed a throw-in for Lebanon beside the corner flag. From thereon, it was clear that the Indian team wanted to stay there and cause as many problems as it could.
And the breakthrough came, seven minutes into the game. Pritika Barman latched on to a long ball from Divyani Linda from deep, forayed into the penalty area before deceiving the Lebanon defender. Then, Barman, with the goal at sight, slotted it past the keeper to give the all-important lead.
That gave the team bucket loads of confidence. The team kept pressing high in the match, forcing errors and making incisive passes. Those efforts were rewarded with three more goals. (Alva Devi 36’, Joya 72’ Pritika 85’). This is where their challenge becomes tougher. A knockout match against hosts China awaits but as Conti mentioned, the young tigresses are ‘not there to just defend.’
Result: India 4 (Pritika 7, 85’, Alva Devi 36’, Joya 72’) bt Lebanon 0.