India U17 Women’s team will face South Korea, Thailand and Iran in Group A of AFC U17 Asian Cup Qualifiers Round 2. The draw for the second round of the qualifiers took place on Thursday, 18 May 2023 at the AFC House in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Eight teams were drawn into two groups of four teams with them being seeded according to their performance in the 2019 AFC U-16 Women's Championship final tournament and qualification from the first round.
The second round of the qualifiers will be played in a single-leg round-robin format with the hosts and the venues yet to be determined by the Asian Football Confederation or AFC. The games are scheduled to be played between 16 and 24 September 2023. The winners and the runners-up from each group will join the four directly qualified nations, Japan, North Korea, China and hosts Indonesia in the 2024 AFC U17 Asian Cup.
Qualification
The U17 Women’s national team topped their qualification group containing Myanmar and Kyrgyz Republic by winning all of their game in a single round-robin format, scoring three and conceding just once. Sibani Devi scored a 77th-minute goal to edge out the Kyrgyz 1-0 in the first match while Sulanjana Raul and Pooja scored within minutes in the first half for an eventual 2-1 win over Myanmar to advance to the next round.
Group A
South Korea
Thailand
Iran
India
India will feel they have a chance to qualify from the group to their second-ever AFC U17 Asian Cup tournament after last participating in the inaugural edition back in 2005, then known as the AFC U-16 Women's Championship. South Korea possess the stiffest challenge in Group A but the second place is worth battling for. Thailand and Iran will bring unpredictability with them so the Young Tigresses should do the needful and produce the required results to book the ticket to Indonesia next year.
Fixtures
South Korea vs India
India vs Thailand
Iran vs India
