Indian women football team coach Anadi Barua today said their first match of the Women's Asian Cup qualifiers against Myanmar will decide their fate as it "sets the tone" for the tournament ahead.
"This match will decide our fate. We need a good start. The first match always sets the tone. We start from scratch on Tuesday evening. No pressure and no permutation and combinations. This is to me the most important game. We need to approach it as if it's the decider," Barua said.
Riding on back-to-back victories in international friendlies against Bahrain, the Indian eves seemed confident of getting the better of their opponents in the opener.
"I would not like to read too much into the friendlies but the victories, especially the second one, was a morale-boosting one. It also gave me a chance to asses my team's strengths and weaknesses. The one-month camp in Pune helped too," he said.
Myanmar are placed 46 on the FIFA rankings while India are ranked 51.
The Indian eves have been in good form of late winning the SAFF Championships for the second consecutive time last year. They also got the better of a combined Dutch team in one of the exhibition matches played in January this year.
On the other hand, Barua's counterpart Yoshinori Kumada too is upbeat about his team's chances.
