Indian women's national team to take on higher-ranked Vietnam in friendlies

The Indian women's national team will play two friendlies against Vietnam, which is ranked 34th as opposed to India's 57th spot.

India will take on Vietnam on November 3 and 6.

The Indian senior women's national team seemed confident before departing on Wednesday for Vietnam, where it will play two FIFA International friendlies next month.

The team that won the SAFF Women's Championship, impressed in the AFC Olympic Qualifiers Round 2 and finished third in the COTIF Cup in Spain this year, set camp in New Delhi for six days before flying off to Vietnam.

Head coach Maymol Rocky believes that the team has now reached the point where it needs to play higher-ranked opposition like Vietnam (ranked 34th, as compared to India's 57th), in order to further improve.

"I think this is the first time that we will play against Vietnam. It's all about playing against higher-ranked teams so that we can further improve ourselves," said Rocky.

While the team prepares for the two matches against Vietnam, which are set to be held on November 3 and November 6, the head coach constantly had one eye on the 2022 Women's Asian Cup Qualifiers next year.

"Right now, our efforts are to match them and be better than them. It's only when we play better teams that we can gauge our strengths and weaknesses," she quipped.

"Our main aim is to qualify for the AFC Asian Cup. We need to have patience and keep improving at the same time," she further said.

Captain and centre-back Ashalata Devi believes that although Vietnam are a higher-ranked side, the hard work put in by the Indian girls will manifest into results on the pitch."

"Obviously Vietnam are a much higher-ranked team than us. But this doesn't mean that we can't beat them," said Ashalata. "We have been working really hard and improving, so we will be up for the fight."

Ashalata's fellow centre-back Sweety Devi feels that the responsibility will be on the two of them to organise the team from the back.

"It's not going to be easy, playing against Vietnam, and as defenders, the responsibility will be on Asha  di  and me to organise the team," she said. "But having someone as experienced as her at the back helps a lot, as she reads the game and instructs everyone accordingly. I think if we all fight together, keep ourselves calm, and stick to the plan, we can get good results out of Vietnam."