AIFF Media Team

NEW DELHI: After a winning start to the Pink Ladies U20 Youth Cup, the Indian U20 women's team will take on Hong Kong in their second friendly match on Saturday, February 22, 2025, at the Emirhan Sport Centre in Manavgat, Türkiye, at 17:30 IST. The match will be streamed live on fanzone.tv.

The Young Tigresses came from behind to beat Jordan 2-1 in the opening match on the Mediterranean coast on Wednesday. Trailing by a penalty at half-time, Lhingdeikim and Pooja scored to turn the match around for Joakim Alexandersson's side. The Swede felt that his girls could've had a much more comfortable win as they dominated from the start till the end. The half-time talk bore fruit and India were able to nick the well-deserved win.

"It was a decent performance from us," said Alexandersson. "We should have scored at least one or two goals in the first 20 minutes. We pressed them well high up the pitch and created some really good situations, but didn't have the quality in the final third. I was a bit worried but we had a good talk at half-time about what we should improve and the girls did that. I felt confident after our equaliser.

Overall, I'm satisfied that we kept on going in the second half despite conceding an unnecessary penalty in the first half. We were the better team in the whole match and finally scored some quality goals that secured a win in our first game here which is good for our confidence."

Alexandersson's changes proved to be crucial. At half-time, he brought on Cindy Remruatpuii Colney, a more attacking choice, in place of the rather deep lying Kayenpaibam Anju Chanu. Nishima Kumari also replaced Alina Chingakham at right-back. The most influential change, however, was the introduction of Nongmeikapam Sibani Devi on the right wing that allowed Pooja to shift to a more central position.

Ultimately, the winning goal was a result of a combined effort by these players as Cindy spread the ball on the right channel for Sibani, whose cutback was finished off by Pooja.

"We needed to bring more energy, and Sibani is a very speedy player and good in 1v1. Pooja has exceptionally good understanding and fantastic work rate, and can be used pretty much everywhere on the pitch. Cindy also gave us more strength in duels and had a very good impact in the game. We moved the ball much faster in the second half but we still have to improve this in the next game," Alexandersson commented.

Saturday's opponents Hong Kong haven't been active in the recent past, last featuring in the 2023 East Asian Youth Games, where they lost to Korea Republic and China, and won against Mongolia. In the AFC U20 Asian Cup Qualifiers in March 2023, they drew with Laos and Philippines and lost to China. In the U19/U20 level, India and Hong Kong have met once in the past - the AFC U19 Women's Championship in 2004 where the Young Tigresses won 2-1.

"I think Hong Kong are a bit stronger than Jordan. We just have to work harder on our ideas and keep improving. I really look forward to the game," said Alexandersson.

"I want us to be even more aggressive when we are pressing. We want to be faster with the ball in our build-up and while shifting from side to side. Also, there has to be more desire to run into the final third to score goals. Maybe there will be a few changes in the line-up. It depends on the performance in the training sessions and physical fitness," the coach added.