Confident India faces Tunisian challenge in second friendly

After defeating UAE on their home ground, an upbeat Indian Women’s Team will face Tunisia in Dubai on Monday in its second match.

India will head into the match on the back of a 4-1 win over UAE (Representative Photo)

After defeating UAE on its home ground, an upbeat Indian Women’s Team will face Tunisia in Dubai on Monday in its second international match.

The team had earlier defeated UAE by a 4-1 margin in Dubai, with Manisha Kalyan, Pyari Xaxa, Sweety Devi and Anju Tamang netting the goals.

This victory came after the team played its first overseas friendly with Thomas Dennerby as the Head coach.

“It was definitely a good start for the girls. That kind of a win helps to get some useful self-confidence into the players,” said Head coach Dennerby after his first international game with the Indian Senior Women’s National Team.

Looking ahead to the Tunisia game, Dennerby felt that though it will be a tougher challenge for the girls, the aim remains to earn a victory.

“I guess it is going to be a bit tougher against Tunisia, but we always try to win, and that is just what we will try to do,” said Dennerby. “It is good that we will be playing a relatively tougher team like Tunisia. We need to get used to playing at a higher pace.”

“There are ups and downs in every game. There were times when we were doing really well to control the game. But there were other times when we were also trying to force the game more than we had to,” explained the UEFA Pro Licensed coach.

“When you try to force the game, you tend to make small unforced errors, and those can hurt us when we play the best teams. So we need to work on eliminating these errors," he added.