AFC U-19 Women Qualifiers: India beat Uzbekistan 1-0, top group

The India Under-19 Women’s team scored a surprise 1-0 victory against Uzbekistan in their AFC Under-19 Women’s Championship Qualification Round 1 at the Hang Jebat Stadium in Melaka, Malaysia. The golden goal for India was scored by striker Anita Rawat. After their opening day 1-0 win against neighbours Bangladesh, the India Women juniors followed it up with another lone goal victory to top Group A and qualify for the second round qualifiers along with Uzbekistan.

India were the better of the two sides on display today, but they were only able to score one goal through Anita Rawat in the 22nd minute.

Now waiting in the second phase of the qualifiers would be seeded Thailand and Vietnam, while Jordan and Iran from Group B plus Myanmar and Chinese Taipei from Group C also qualified along with India and Uzbekistan.

The eight teams will then be divided into two groups of four and play a round-robin league in a centralised format with the top two teams meeting in a play-off to determine who advances to next year’s 2013 AFC U-19 Women’s Championship.