New Delhi [India], January 13 : The Indian women's futsal team earned their first-ever international victory in style, defeating Maldives 11-1 at the Nonthaburi Stadium in Nonthaburi, Thailand, in their SAFF Women's Futsal Championship opener on Tuesday, as per the official website of the All India Football Federation (AIFF).
Khushbu Saroj (17', 22', 24', 26') scored four, while Ritika Singh (6', 17'), Sonali Mondal (17', 37'), and Nishka Parkash (33', 34') netted two each. Mithila Ramani (4') scored the first goal of the tournament. Achom Degio's own goal (39' og), a couple of minutes before the end, got Maldives on the scoresheet.
It was all India at the start, as the Futsal Tigresses prowled forward looking for goals early on. Despite knocking on the Maldives area for long, India had to wait till the fourth minute to break the deadlock, when Arya More's cross found Mithila, who turned it in at the far post. Two minutes later, Ritika doubled the lead, turning in a shot from Diti Kanungo.
India kept up the pressure for long bursts, though Maldives slowly began to look for avenues to go raiding beyond their halves. After a brief lull, the match sprang back to life again, with two goals being scored in quick succession, Sonali Mondal playing a key role in each of them.
She steered the ball to Khushbu, who slipped it past the Maldives goalkeeper to score. Seconds later, Sonali played a one-two to set Ritika through on goal. The latter only had to finish in an empty net.
Sonali turned scorer herself, minutes before the half-time hooter, she played a one-two with Ritika to open up the Maldives defence, before adding the fifth goal for India.
The Futsal Tigresses went into the changeover with a 5-0 lead, and came out of the blocks looking to widen the margin in the second period.
Khushbu, who had scored one in the first half, netted three in quick succession after the restart. Her first came off a shot from outside the circle, which was struck hard and low into the bottom corner. A couple of minutes later, Ritika played Khushbu through as she went on to calmly finish it past the keeper. Khushbu's fourth came off a well-worked set-piece routine, where the ball was played back and forth between her and Sonali, before the former struck it into the back of the net.
India had to endure two minutes of play with just four players on the court, after Diti was shown a red card for a last-ditch tackle on Maldives' Mariyam Noora.
Once that period was over, however, India's scoring resumed. Nishka Parkash added two - she jinked past the Maldives goalkeeper and fixo Aminath Fazla to score in an empty net, before working a one-two with Ritika to take India into the double figures.
Sonali scored her second, and India's 11th, with three minutes left on the stopwatch, when she stole the ball from Fathimath Saliya and put it past the keeper. Maldives managed to score a goal of their own in the dying embers, when a corner by Mariyam Noora struck Achom Degio before going in. Still, the writing was already on the wall, as India opened the tournament with their first-ever victory in international women's futsal.
India's match squad: Tanvi Mavani (Goal Keeper), Aiswarya Arumugam (Goal Keeper), Achom Degio, Radhika Patel, Mithila Ramani, Nishka Parkash, Arya More, Jigmet Chunzen (Captain), Khushbu Saroj, Sonali Mondal, Ritika Singh, Diti Kanungo, Pooja Gupta, Aarushi Santhosh.
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