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The India U16 team will be competing in the AFC U16 Championship in Malaysia between September 20th and October 7th this year. This competition acts as a qualifying tournament for U17 World Cup which will be held in Peru next year.
The top four teams from the AFC U16 Championship will qualify for the U17 World Cup. India's best performance to date in the AFC U16 Championship is a quarterfinal finish in 2002.
AFC Qualifiers
The Indian U16 boys competed in the qualifiers for AFC Championship in September 2017. They comfortably beat Palestine 3-0 and drew with both Nepal (2-2) and defending champions Iraq (0-0). Owing to this excellent performance, they finished second in their group and qualified for AFC Championships this year.
Preparation for AFC Championship
As part of the preparation for this all-important tournament, India has participated in a number of small competitions throughout the year.
In March 2018, the Blue Colts participated in the Jockey Club International Youth Invitational Tournament held in Hong Kong. They won all of their scheduled matches quite convincingly. They thrashed Chinese Taipei 4-0, Singapore 3-1, and Hong Kong 4-2.
After this tournament, the team traveled to Spain to compete in Sport Chain Cup where they lost to the USA 0-1 and Norway 1-3. Going by the quality of opposition, this was a good performance by the U16 boys.
Their next destination was Serbia where they featured in three friendlies. They defeated Jordan 2-1, Tajikistan 4-2, and drew with Serbia 0-0.
After a successful outing in Serbia, the Blue Colts went on a tour to China, Thailand, and Malaysia. Here, they had mixed results. They lost to China 0-1 and Thailand twice 1-3 and 1-2. They drew with North Korea 1-1 and won against Malaysia 2-1.
In their final tournament before the AFC Championship, India traveled to Jordan to participate in WAFF Boys' Championship. They put in a dominating performance here and finished as runners-up. This was no meager achievement as they managed to beat the likes of Jordan 4-0, Yemen 3-0, and Iraq 1-0 in this tournament.
Opponents in AFC U16 Championship
India is in a relatively tough Group C for the upcoming tournament. Iran, Indonesia, and Vietnam form Group C along with the Blue Colts. India opens their campaign against Vietnam on September 21st.
