New Delhi: The Indian women’s football team started their Asian Cup campaign against the higher-ranked Chinese Taipei, with fewer chances and more hopes.
However, India started to smell blood after the Indian forward Anju Tamang gave team India a 1-0 lead minutes into the second half.
INDIA SCOREEEE | IND 1-0 TPE
Its Anju Tamang who has given India the lead
Fabulous work by the girls at #AsianGames2023 pic.twitter.com/6IsDtHtazY
— IndiaSportsHub (@IndiaSportsHub) September 21, 2023
However, the much-experienced Chinese Taipei came back from behind and defeated India by 2-1, with the help of goals from Lai Li-chin and Su Yu-hsuan in the 68th and the 83rd minutes, respectively.
FULL-TIME ⌛
A massive effort by the girls against the Chinese Taipei, but it ends in a defeat. Nevertheless, the #BlueTigresses 🐯 can hold their heads high after this performance 👏👏
TPE 2-1 IND#TPEIND ⚔️ #19thAsianGames 🏆 #IndianFootball ⚽ pic.twitter.com/YK4cPuVxiF
— Indian Football Team (@IndianFootball) September 21, 2023
Indian team gave everything they had to equalise the game, but it wasn’t enough, as in the end, it was the Chinese Taipei women who finally walked away with 3 important points.
Although the Indian defence looked out of place in the closing minutes, that was definitely not the case in the first half as, with the help of Shreya Hooda’s brilliant goalkeeping skills, the blue tigress managed to force one of the tournament favourites, Chinese Taipei, to play a goalless first half.
India, although the lower ranked team, looked dangerous on the field, and despite the loss, showed the intent to make it through to the next round of the tournament.
The Indian women’s football team would now want to forget the first-match disappointment and will try to follow the men’s team’s footsteps to make a comeback in the tournament with a second-match victory.
Indian women’s team, who are drawn into ‘Group B,’ alongside the Chinese Taipei and Thailand women’s team, will shift their focus on their next match on September 24, against the Thailand women’s team.
Earlier, on the day, the Indian men’s football team, stayed alive in the tournament after defeating Bangladesh by 1-0, thanks to the skipper Sunil Chhetri’s only goal.
Indian men’s team also lost their first game by a huge margin of 5-1, against the hosts China.
