For the primary time in 20 years, the India U-20 girls’s workforce has managed to safe a qualification for the AFC U-20 Ladies’s Asian Cup. The aspect achieved the feat after defeating hosts Myanmar 1-0 of their ultimate Group D encounter on the Thuwunna Stadium in Yangon. With this end result, the Younger Tigresses completed on the prime of their group with seven factors. It was Pooja who registered the lone aim for India.
After this end result, the All India Soccer Federation (AIFF) introduced a reward of USD 25,000 (INR 22 lakh) for the U20 girls’s workforce. It should be talked about that India had final certified for the event means again in 2006.
Within the Group D qualification marketing campaign, India got here up with some astonishing outcomes, the place they squared off in opposition to Indonesia (0-0) and Turkmenistan (7-0). All of it got here to a conclusion with the aspect defeating hosts Myanmar (1-0) in entrance of a capability crowd on the Thuwunna Stadium in Yangon, Myanmar.
In your complete marketing campaign, India didn’t concede a single aim.
“The outcomes on the pitch, nonetheless, are a direct final result of the arduous yards put in behind the scenes with sustained planning and developmental efforts over the previous few years. With no shortcuts taken, India’s qualification for the AFC U20 Ladies’s Asian Cup was a direct fruits of the long-term imaginative and prescient and structured preparation put in place on the grassroots stage,” the AIFF stated in an official launch.
“The AIFF, in collaboration with the Sports activities Authority of India (SAI), has undertaken a number of initiatives to strengthen the grassroots and youth constructions in girls’s soccer. One such initiative is the ASMITA Ladies’s Soccer Leagues, which witnessed the profitable conduct of 155 leagues throughout the nation from 2023 to 2025 on the U13, U15, and U17 ranges. The 2023–24 version noticed participation from 6,305 junior gamers, a quantity that rose to eight,658 in 2024–25,” the discharge added.
The AIFF additionally confirmed that the U20 workforce have been in camp since December 2024. The aspect first performed the Pink Girls Youth Cup in Türkiye, defeating groups like Hong Kong and Jordan.
“The AIFF stays absolutely dedicated to making sure the very best preparation for the AFC U20 Ladies’s Asian Cup 2026, scheduled to be held in Thailand in April 2026. The Federation will work carefully with all stakeholders to facilitate prolonged coaching camps and safe high-quality worldwide publicity for the workforce,” the federation said.
“The purpose for the Federation is just not solely to make the gamers bodily and mentally match by way of coaching, but additionally to make them able to rub shoulders in opposition to the perfect in Asia. Alternatives for the AIFF to rearrange high quality opponents to play preparatory matches are additionally being checked out,” it concluded.
