Bengaluru, India: The India women's football team dominated the Maldives 14-0 in a goal-laden friendly at the Padukone-Dravid Centre for Sports Excellence in Bengaluru.
The match was the first of two friendlies between the two teams, with the second scheduled for Thursday at the same venue.
Joakim Alexandersson, marked a successful start to his tenure as the coach of Blue Tigresses thrashed. India the Maldives 14-0 at the Padukone-Dravid Centre, after totally dominating the game.
Eight players made their debut in the game, with three of them playing pivotal roles in the attack, scoring eight of India’s 14 goals.
Veteran Pyari Xaxa and debutant Lynda Kom Serto both netted hat-tricks, with Serto scoring four goals. Neha and Kajol Dsouza added two goals each, while Sangita Basfore, Sorokhaibam Ranjana Chanu, and Rimpa Haldar each scored once.
The 14-0 victory is one of the India’s largest margins of victory in international football, with the team’s previous biggest win coming in 2010 when they defeated Bhutan 18-0 in the SAFF Championship in Bangladesh.
This is India's sixth win over Maldives in International Football. The Maldives team, coached by Mohamed Nizam (Nizambe), is currently ranked 163rd in the FIFA World Rankings, while India sits in the 69th spot. India, the most successful team in the South Asian region, has faced Maldives six times in the past. India has won five of these encounters, with the only draw coming in the 2016 South Asian Games, when Maldives held India to a 0-0 draw in Assam.
The two teams first faced off in 2014 during the Asian Games, where India triumphed 15-0. Later that year, India secured an 8-0 victory in the SAFF Women's Championship. In 2019, India won both encounters, 6-0 in the SAFF Championship and 5-0 in the South Asian Games. Almost three years ago, India defeated the Maldives 9-0 in the SAFF Women's Championship, which was the last meeting between the teams before yesterday's clash.
