India aim to extend winning run against Timor Leste in AFC Women’s Asian Cup 2026 Qualifiers

India will face Timor Leste in their second Group B match of the AFC Women’s Asian Cup 2026 Qualifiers on Sunday in Thailand. After a 13-0 win over Mongolia, India aim to build on their strong start and secure vital points.

Hyderabad: After a thumping opening day victory, the Indian senior women’s team will look to continue the winning momentum in the AFC Women’s Asian Cup 2026 Qualifiers when they take on Timor Leste on Sunday at the 700th Anniversary of Chiang Mai Stadium in Thailand .

The match will be streamed live on Changsuek YouTube Channel and Thai Women’s Football Facebook Page.

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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, Indian 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 all the remaining three opponents.

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. 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,” said Chettri.

Chettri and his coaching staff were in attendance at the 700th Anniversary of Chiang Mai Stadium on Thursday as Timor Leste restricted 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.

” 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.