Bhubaneswar: Debutants India are not going into the FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup as one of the favourites to lift the trophy.
Head coach Thomas Dennerby is well aware of that, as he urged the Indian girls to show that they can compete against the best in the world.
The team may be relatively inexperienced, but the players couldn’t have hoped for a better venue to be playing all their Group A matches in than the Kalinga Stadium.
The refurbished Kalinga Stadium looks picture perfect as it waits to host the inauguration ceremony on Tuesday, followed by two matches – Brazil vs Morocco (4.30 pm), followed by India vs USA (8 pm).
Here’s a video of the new-look Kalinga Stadium, tweeted by Odisha Sports:
𝗞𝗮𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴𝗮 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗱𝗶𝘂𝗺- 𝗙𝗹𝗮𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮 𝗻𝗲𝘄 𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗸#KalingaStadium is all set to host the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup India 2022 with a new look.
Are You Ready ?#KickOffTheDream #U17WWC pic.twitter.com/PTR1xJSMyb
— Odisha Sports (@sports_odisha) October 10, 2022
Following their tournament-opener, India will face off against fellow-debutants Morocco on October 14 and Brazil on October 17.
The top two teams from the four groups will qualify for the knockout quarterfinals.
“It’s not only about the result… It’s about the performance to show that Indian girls can play football. But of course, in our group, we have our own goals, and we are ready to fight for them,” Dennerby said.
The experienced Swedish coach said that the team will go all out to earn points and score goals against the USA, Brazil and Morocco.
Assessing the Indian team, Dennerby said: “We are going to this tournament with a really good fitness level now. The girls have learnt about positioning, where to go when we lose the ball. I hope it’s going to be difficult to score against us.”
The coach added that the girls are determined to show Indian fans that “we have a good team.”
Here’s wishing our girls the best as they look to carve out an identity for them as the world watches.
