India’s U-17 coach Nicolai Adam has announced his squad for the AFC U-16 Championship due to start in Goa on the 15th of September. The Indian U-16 team who have done exceedingly well on their tour to Germany to get ready for the championship are up against Iran, Saudi Arabia, and UAE to qualify for the knockout stage of the competition.
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The top two from each group (of four teams each) qualify to the next round. India, if they manage to qualify will most probably be up against tournament favorites Australia and Japan in the next round. If they do manage to do better than their tournament best of Quarter Final, it will put them in a good stead ahead of next year’s U-17 FIFA World Cup set to take place in India.
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India have qualified for the tournament a total of seven times (including this tournament), and have gone out during the group stage five times. They, however, did manage to reach the quarter-finals in 2002 but went out to South Korea. The games will take place at two venues, the 19,000 capacity Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru stadium at Margao and GMC stadium at Ambolim.
The 21 Indian players are listed below: Goalkeepers: Dheeraj Singh Moirangthem, Prabhsukhan Singh Gill, Mohammad NawazDefenders: Boris Singh Thangjam, Jitendra Singh, Mohammed Sarif Khan, Mohamad Rakip, Gaston D'Silva, NarenderMidfielders: Sanjeev Stalin, Suresh Singh Wangjam, Khumanthem Ninthoinganba Meetei, Amarjit Singh Kiyam, Komal Thatal, Aniket Anil Jadhav, Lalengmawia, Saurabh Meher, Joseph VanlalhruaiaForwards: Aman Chetri, Rahul Kannoly Praveen, Nonganba Singh Akoijam
Below are India’s fixtures for the Tournament:
September 15, 2016: India vs UAE – September (7pm).September 18, 2016: Saudi Arabia vs India (7pm).September 21, 2016: India vs Iran (7pm).
