PANAJI: The Indian women's football team have had it easy so far on their exposure tour.
India scored four against United Arab Emirates (UAE) and five against Bahrain. Even though, in between these two victories, they lost by a solitary goal against Tunisia, Thomas Dennerby's team were dominant all through.
Now India are bracing for a tougher challenge as they play Chinese Taipei on Wednesday and then travel to Sweden for friendlies against Hammarby IF and Djurgardens, both top-tier clubs coached by Dennerby in the past.
"We will have two good games next week," the India coach told reporters during an online interaction on Monday.
"A few players will be missing because the matches are played during the FIFA window and there are (World Cup) qualifiers. They will still be good teams and challenging for us."
First up for India will be Hammarby IF who attracted a record crowd of 18,537 for the team's Stockholm derby with AIK on Sunday. Then there's Djurgardens, a team that Dennerby took to the UEFA Women's Cup final during his time there in 2005.
"These teams will be attacking us. The pace will also be higher. Everything that you do, the decision making, your movement, everything has to be quicker," said Dennerby, who guided Sweden to a third-place finish at the FIFA World Cup in 2011 India are preparing for the AFC Asian Cup 2022 which will be played in Mumbai and Pune from January 20 to February 6.
The hosts may have to do without the services of injured striker Bala Devi, the country's biggest name in women's football.
Bala, 31, picked up an ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) injury during her stint with Rangers FC and was operated on September 3.
"Good players are always part of your plan, but we also need to be very realistic," said Dennerby. "I think her surgery was in the beginning of September. The quickest recovery ever I heard about after ACL injury is about four and half, five months. Some players can take upto six to nine months.
"We really don't know. If she is 100 percent fit, of course, we want to have the best players, but we also need to be realistic and plan without her. We will see in a couple of weeks how the rehabilitation is going."
Bala is India's first women footballer to sign a professional contract, and score, in Europe. She is the country's best bet in front of goal too, having scored 52 goals in 58 matches between 2010 and 2019, when she last represented the country.
