India vs Timor Leste: Crispin Chettri warns of tough challenge in AFC Women's Asian Cup Qualifiers

Chiang Mai (Thailand): Coming off a thumping victory in its tournament opener, the Indian team will look to continue the winning momentum in the AFC Women’s Asian Cup 2026 Qualifiers when it takes on Timor Leste here on Sunday.

The five-team Group B is currently led by Iraq, who are on four points after a 5-2 victory over Mongolia and a 0-0 draw with Timor Leste.

India, who beat Mongolia 13-0, and Thailand, who beat Timor Leste 4-0, are on three points each.

Despite Timor Leste being ranked 158th, 32 places below Mongolia, India coach Crispin Chettri believed that the Southeast Asian side would pose a stronger challenge.

Having watched all teams in action after the first two matchdays, there’s now a much clearer assessment of the remaining three opponents.

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“Timor Leste are a better organised team than Mongolia, and I feel they are better organised defensively than Iraq as well. They prefer going for counter-attacks. They don’t mind keeping the ball either,” Chettri said.

“So, in patches, they are good. But as Thailand dominated the match completely, we can’t say much about their attack. But they have got pace in their team as well.” Chettri and his coaching staff were in attendance at the 700th Anniversary of Chiang Mai Stadium on Thursday as Timor Leste kept 46th-ranked Thailand to four goals.

India, ranked 70, have never faced Timor Leste before.

Coached by Indonesian Emral bin Bustamam, Timor Leste have been more active in international football as compared to Mongolia. They finished fourth in the 2024 AFF Women’s Cup, where they drew against Laos and Singapore.

They have played in four editions of the ASEAN Women’s Championship, and the 2-1 win over Singapore in 2019 remains the only official victory in their history. The 0-0 draw with Iraq on Monday was their first-ever point in an AFC competition.

India utilised their five-day break to recover and prepare for the tighter schedule ahead, with three matches in a week. The Blue Tigresses had two morning training sessions on Tuesday and Thursday, and two sessions on Friday and Saturday.

“I think when you have a tournament of four matches, this kind of rest helps in team building. Tactically, we worked on a few things which maybe we didn’t do well in the first match.

“We had four training sessions to work on that. So, I think that has helped us a lot in preparing for our upcoming matches and specifically for certain teams also,” said Chettri.

There was no training on Wednesday as Chettri gave complete rest to the players, allowing them time to refresh, something the coach believes is necessary between games.

“For me, recovery and staying outside football for a certain time is important. When you are in a tournament with high pressure and playing back-to-back matches, sometimes getting out of the football zone, being yourself, and not thinking about the game is helpful, I believe,” the India coach said.

“Players will come out more focused in the next day’s training session. They will put in more effort, and I think that will help them cope mentally too,” said Chettri.