India U-16 Football Team Shows Seniors The Way, Qualify on Merit For 2016 AFC Championship

The India U-16 team, which impressed one and all in the 2016 AFC Under-16 qualifiers, entered the main round of the competition on merit, and not just as the hosts. The team, which is preparing to play in the 2017 Under-17 World Cup, defeated higher-ranked nations Bahrain 5-0 and Lebanon 6-0, to be placed second in their Group after Iran. (India thrash Lebanon 6-0)

With six points from three matches and a goal difference of six, India were one of four best second-placed teams in the group stages and hence they qualified. The rules of the competition was that the 11 group winners and four best runners-up teams in the group will qualify for the main stage. (India rout Bahrain 5-0)

As India are the hosts of the 2016 AFC Championships and have an automatic qualification, Nepal was lucky to book a berth in that slot for the 16-team competition. (India go down to Iran)

The Indian U-16 team's success comes at a time when the senior national team has been consistently giving a poor account of themselves. The senior team has so far lost all their matches in the World Cup qualifiers against Oman, Guam and Iran respectively.

AIFF technical director Scott O'Donell, who was training the U-16 team before Nicolai Admas took over, is happy over the achievement.

"It is extremely satisfying that the boys have qualified in their own right for the AFC U-16 Championships next year. Credit must go to Nicolai and his staff for preparing the boys so well. The second half of the game against Lebanon was especially satisfying because we absolutely dominated, played some great football and scored some good goals. I was very proud of the boys and their performance," he said.

But at the same time, O'Donell advised not to get "carried away."

"Don't get carried away. It is still early days. There is a long way to go and while it is great that the supporters are happy (and rightly so), it is important that we remain grounded and continue to support the boys," he stated.

"They are young boys and there will be some hiccups along the way. But I liked what I saw in Tabriz. The boys are totally committed and focussed, as are the staff."

The Colts had come into the Qualifiers after an exposure trip to Germany wherein they played against the youth teams of RedBull Salzburg and other top German Clubs.

The performance had also come in for huge praise from rival coaches in the Championship.

Abdulsaheb Abdulnabi, head coach of the Bahrain U-16 team admitted that, "India were strong in all departments and surprised and destroyed us on the field." The Lebanese coach, Gholam Ghader went a step further and said: "India were the best team in the Group. They were fitter and were better on everything, tactically much superior."

For the record, Bahrain and Lebanon are ranked 112 and 132 respectively in the FIFA Ladder in comparison to India's 155.