Perth, March 6 (IANS) The Indian senior women’s national team will face the mighty Japan in their second Group C match of the AFC Women’s Asian Cup Australia 2026 at the Perth Rectangular Stadium in Perth, Australia, on Saturday. India currently stand third in the group despite the 1-2 loss against Vietnam in their first match, after Japan defeated Chinese Taipei 2-0.

Historically, Japan, eighth in the FIFA Women’s World Rankings, have had a clear advantage over the Blue Tigresses (ranked 67th), having won all three previous meetings. The Nadeshiko have scored 19 times in these three meetings. The last one was a 0-7 loss in the Olympic qualifiers in 2023.

India has had two days to recover from their match against Vietnam, and getting the players back into prime condition for the Japan encounter is high on head coach Amelia Valverde’s list of priorities.

She said, “Of course, we will adapt to whatever situations arise. Right now, the first focus has been recovery, because we had a very demanding match physically.

Valverde is wary of the threat that Japan, who have won the Asian Cup in 2014 and 2018, and the World Cup in 2011, pose.

“We know Japan are a team that really likes to keep possession, with a lot of dynamism. They like to dominate the game, but we have to prepare our own game. We hope to deliver a strong performance, to be very competitive again, as we were last Wednesday,” said Valverde. “At certain moments, the game may demand that we be flexible from a tactical point of view.

“We will try, from the first minute of the game. I’ve mentioned in the past that the three opponents we face in our group are very different from each other,” she said. “We need to focus our energy on our own team. We want to try to manage the game and take it in the direction we believe is best, while adapting to their characteristics.”

India midfielder Sangita Basfore was intent on correcting the mistakes made in the Vietnam game and moving forward. “We made a big effort against Vietnam, we did everything we could on the field, but now we have analysed the game and the mistakes made in it,” said Sangita. “The plan is to improve in the next game and take those learnings forward into the next match against Japan.

“Japan are a very good side. We need to perform even better than before, and that’s what we’ll try to do,” she said.

Japan head coach Nils Nielsen was cautiously confident of his side’s fortunes against India. “I’m confident we can create chances against India. They are a strong team with great spirit, and although they were unlucky in their last game, we believe we can put them under pressure. To score, we must really commit and fight for every ball.”

–IANS

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