Bengaluru, May 29 (IANS) India and Uzbekistan are no strangers when it comes to women’s football. The two sides are preparing to face each other for the 14th time when they play a FIFA International Friendly on Friday.

The senior Indian women’s national team faces Uzbekistan in the first of two FIFA International Friendlies on Friday at the Padukone-Dravid Centre for Sports Excellence.

India head coach Crispin Chettri said at the pre-match press conference, “We are moving in the right direction. The team have had almost 25 days of preparation, everything’s going as per the expectations.”

Since Chettri took over as the head coach of the Blue Tigresses in February, the senior India women’s national team has seen a transition to a much younger squad, something that the coach has emphasised.

“We are in a transition phase at the moment, and as a coach, I am willing to struggle and sacrifice for it,” said Chettri. “It’s a mixed bunch that we have. While there are many youngsters, we also have some very good seniors like Panthoi (Chanu Elangbam), Grace (Dangmei), Sweety (Devi Ngangbam), Anju (Tamang), and Ratan (Nongmaithem Ratanbala Devi).

“We are without the likes of Ashalata (Devi Loitongbam), Dalima (Chhibber), Aditi (Chauhan), and Indu (Indumathi Kathiresan),” he continued.

“What’s important for us right now is to prepare for the next generation. We must develop the younger generation of players for 2031. I think with the mix of experienced players around them, we are heading in the right direction.

“The important thing is we have senior players in all the key positions like a goalkeeper, centre-back, midfield, and forward,” the coach said.

With the Blue Tigresses set to play the AFC Women’s Asian Cup Australia 2026 qualifiers from June 23 to July 5, in Group B against Mongolia (June 23), Timor-Leste (June 29), Iraq (July 2), and hosts Thailand (July 5), the time for match-preparation is now. However, Chettri is willing to sacrifice results for development.

“The Uzbekistan matches are ones where we want to explore and give opportunities to youngsters. We simply want to play proper football and keep possession whenever we can. Instead of the results, we are looking more at how the players fulfill their roles and responsibilities, and there’s no match better to do that than against a quality team like Uzbekistan,” he said.

Defender Hemam Shilky Devi stressed the importance of the month-long camp in Bengaluru, as the team prepared with Asian qualification as the primary target.

“We’ve had an extremely good camp so far. The facilities that we have been using are excellent, and we’ve been able to just focus on training all month long,” she said.

Uzbekistan hold the upper hand in the head-to-head record against India, having won nine of the 13 matches played between the two teams so far, with three matches ending in draws. India, meanwhile, have only won once against Uzbekistan, back in 2003. The last time the two teams played each other was in June 2024, which ended in a stalemate in a friendly in Tashkent.

“We played quite often against them, and they are a very good team. We’ve got a lot of respect for them. But our team is also improving, and with the preparation that we’ve had, I can only hope that we will do better than last year,” said Shilky.

Uzbekistan senior women’s national team head coach Kotryna Kulbyte lauded the strides India have made in women’s football.

“India are a very good opponent, and that is why we agreed to play them in these two friendly matches. They’ve been camping for a month now, so we are expecting a tough couple of matches,” said Kulbyte.

“We know how fast women’s football is growing in India with increasing help from the government. I just hope both teams enjoy the game tomorrow.”

Uzbekistan captain Diyorakhon Khabibullaeva said, “We could see when we played India a couple of times last year that they are a good team. We’re expecting a tough game.”

–IANS

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