India women 3rd in Spain, given special trophy

New Delhi, August 12

Impressed with the Indian women’s football team’s performance in the COTIF Cup in Valencia, the tournament’s president handed the players a special third-placed trophy. India played four matches in total, out of which they won two (3-1 against Mauritania and 7-0 against Bolivia) and lost as many (0-2 against both Villarreal and Spain U-19).

This is the team’s best finish in the tournament, and it also won the Fair Play award.

“Our performances were much better this time, and the organisers of the tournament took note of that,” said India head coach Maymol Rocky. “Even the two matches that we lost against Villarreal and Spain were close encounters, and they really appreciated the improvement we’ve shown in the last one year.”

The improvement in the performances since the 2018 edition impressed COTIF president Eliseu Gómez Tormos so much that he ended up doing something that was never done before. “The organisation has valued the immense progress made by the Indian women’s team over the last year. They have been a combative side with a warrior spirit making the fans here at COTIF fall in love with them,” said Tormos.

“For all this, we have given them the prize for the national team that has behaved in the most sporting manner in the event, and I hope that they can come back here next year and repeat their performance once again in 2020,” he added.  — PTI