By Akhil Rawat

NEW DELHI: A day prior to the second AFC Women’s Asian Cup Group A match against Chinese Taipei, the Blue Tigresses take inspiration from their performance in their last match against IR Iran -- the match stats of which look promising enough.

Against IR Iran, the Blue Tigresses had 486 passes played among themselves – building from the back, playing one-twos, with a 73% accuracy, and 61% possession -- an aspect which projects the new philosophy of Indian Football.

After soaking in the initial pressure from their opponents, the Indian women dominated till the final whistle, and the period saw them take 22 shots at the rival goal, out of which 6 were on target.

The domination also brought in 29 crosses, and earned 9 corners for the Blue Tigresses, and though the Indian women came close to slot it home from some of them, they were unable to break the deadlock, an area which Head Coach Thomas Dennerby has been working on in the practice sessions.

The Blue Tigresses, who also impressed with their closing down of their opponents came up with 190 challenges, winning 51% of them. There were 89 tackles which came while defending, and 101 while attacking.

Among those who played the full match, central defender Manisa Panna impressed with a passing accuracy of 81%. She was closely followed by the tireless Sanju Yadav with 76% passing accuracy from 75 passes; Anju Tamang with 76% accuracy from 74 passes; and Indumathi with 72% accuracy from 50 passes.

In terms of challenges won, wing-back Dalima Chibber and captain Ashalata Devi stood out winning 88% of their challenges, followed by Sanju on 62%.

The nimble footed Dangmei Grace added a whole new dimension to the Indian attack after coming on as a second-half substitute. Even after playing for only 35 minutes, she created 3 chances, completed 2 key passes which opened up the rival defence, and 6 dribbles – thus bossing the right wing in the process. Her 10 attacking challenges showed her eagerness to win the ball back as well.

Recovery of the ball is a basic in modern day football, and Anju and Sanju lead the chart recovering the ball 7 times.

(With inputs from Dhruv Shah)