Indian Women Lose To Uzbekistan In Football Friendly2Photo© india.com

Indian Women Lose To Uzbekistan In Football Friendly

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Tashkent: The Indian women’s football team slumped to a 0-1 defeat in its first friendly against Uzbekistan, courtesy a late strike by Maftuna Shoyimova, here on Monday. While both sides created ample scoring opportunities, Uzbekistan found the back of the net with a late free-kick by Shoyimova in the 87th minute to grab the bragging rights. Also Read - Gurpreet Singh Sandhu And Sanju Win AIFF Footballer of The Year Awards

As the Uzbeks started off on a higher tempo in near-freezing conditions, India keeper Aditi Chauhan was called into action early on, as she did well to get down and grab a low cross from point-blank range. India looked to hit the hosts on the counter in the early exchanges, with defender Ranjana Chanu combining with midfielder Sangita Basfore to create an opportunity down the left, but the danger was eventually averted by the Uzbek defence. Also Read - FIFA U-17 WWC Will Increase Awareness of Women's Football in India: Aditi Chauhan

The Indian defence staved off the early Uzbek attacks, inspired by Sweety Devi, who did well to deal with the continuous aerial threat by the hosts. In the dying minutes of the first half, Uzbekistan launched another attack that saw Nilufar Kudratova hit the crossbar, before the ball was cleared from inside a melee of legs, as the referee soon brought an end to proceedings.