Turkish Women’s Cup 2024: India looks for glory on Mediterranean shores

The Indian Senior Women’s football team will get to test its ability when it takes on two European and Asian opponents in the four-nation Turkish Women’s Cup tournament, which gets underway at the Gold City Sports Complex in Alanya, Turkey on Wednesday.

India takes on Estonia in the first match before meeting Hong Kong on February 24 and Kosovo in the last match on February 27. The highest aggregator of points in the round-robin will lift the title.

The Indian senior women’s national team was last seen in action in October 2023, when it played both the Asian Games and the Olympic qualifiers in the same month. The players dispersed to join their respective clubs for the Indian Women’s League (IWL) before reuniting for the Turkish Assignment.

The team will be hoping to have a good outing considering that all its three opponents are placed much below its present ranking of 65. It presents a chance for the Indian team to register its first-ever win over a UEFA side in an official match.

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“We had our first session here and we are prepared to begin our campaign. The ground, the weather, everything is perfect. Everyone is happy to be here. We have focused both on our defence and attack in the session today and we are going with a winning mentality tomorrow,” said the Indian captain Ashalata Devi.

Facing a European opponent will be a big task but the team is in the right shape to face the challenge, felt the head coach Langam Chaoba Devi.

“We arrived late last night, and the girls were a bit tired after the long journey. But this morning, everyone seemed energetic and refreshed. We had our training session today, and it is clear that all of them are eager to kick off their campaign here,” she said.