Indian men’s senior football team captain Sunil Chhetri and goalkeeper Gurpreet Singh Sandhu wished the Under-17 women’s football team which will face Sweden in the final of the three-nation tournament, also involving Thailand, on Wednesday.
In a nine-second video, which was posted on the official Twitter handle of Sandhu, both the players were seen praising the girls for their performance against Thailand which fetched them a 1-0 win.
“Hey girls, great performance against Thailand in the semi-finals,” said Chhetri. “We would like to wish you all the very best for the finals against Sweden,” added Sandhu.
The video was shared with the caption, “Sending the best of wishes the way to the Indian Football Women’s Team ahead of their final against Sweden this evening. #SWEIND #ShePower #IndianFootball.”
Sending the best of wishes the way to the @IndianFootball Women’s Team ahead of their final against Sweden this evening. #SWEIND #ShePower #IndianFootball 🇮🇳 pic.twitter.com/mhOF9UBMst
— Gurpreet Singh Sandhu (@GurpreetGK) December 19, 2019
Speaking ahead of the final against Sweden, the Indian team’s coach Thomas Dennerby made sure that the eves in Blue will go for the win irrespective of their opponents’ superiority.
“We will go for the win against Sweden. No matter who we play, we always strive to win — not for a draw or to lose by just one or two goals. We can change tactics for different games and that is to win and not to let in lesser goals. We are going for it,” Dennerby was quoted as saying by IANS.
The tournament opener had also seen the same teams playing, with Sweden taking home the full points after winning 3-0. However, Dennerby is of the opinion that the Indian girls will be better prepared having faced the Swedish team once and believed his players will manage a better result.
“Sweden will come out strong but the difference will be that our girls have the first game in mind. Now, they know better how to handle the pressure. In the first 10 minutes versus Sweden, we were a little bit anxious. Now, I hope we can manage them better. We were closer than the result — 2-1 instead of 3-0 would have been better,” the former Sweden women’s football team coach said.
“We have improved over the tournament. The intensity of our game is higher and the understanding of how many easy chances you can create from taking good positions in defense has grown. We are trying to find a model where we can conserve energy in defense so that we can attack with speed and intensity,” he continued.