Indian Women's Football Team Loses To Vietnam, Paris Olympics Dreams Over

Indian women's football team's Paris Olympics dreams went up in smoke after it lost 1-3 to Vietnam in a group C match of the AFC qualifiers second round tournament in Tashkent on Sunday. Having lost their second consecutive match, India are now out of contention for the 2024 Olympics despite having a match in hand. In the first match, India lost 0-7 to former World Cup champions Japan.

The three group winners and the best-ranked runner-up team in the second round advance to the third and final round.

Huyn Nhu (4th minute), Tran Thi Hai Linh (22nd) and Pham Hai Yen (73rd) found the target for Vietnam while Sandhiya Ranganathan pulled one back for India in the 80th minute.

All four goals of the match were scored from headers.

Bala Devi, who has been the star striker for India throughout her career, was posted as a deep-lying midfielder by Thomas Dennerby, while Soumya Guguloth and Anju Tamang kept switching between the centre-forward and the right-wing positions.

The experiment did not pay off against Vietnam, however, as the opponents launched a barrage of attacks in the opening exchanges. Their captain and striker Nhu got on the scoresheet in the fourth minute itself, when some confusion between India centre-back Ashalata Devi and right-back Sanju resulted in a loss of possession.

Nguyen Thi Tuyet Dung capitalised on the confusion and sent in a cross from the right flank, which was headed in by Nhu.

The Vietnam captain was a menace upfront for the Indian defence, as she constantly managed to get between the lines, and position herself for free headers.

Another effort by Nhu, a glancing header this time, thudded into the near post before Bala cleared it. Minutes later, Panthoi had to pull off a diving save off a free kick