India U16 beat Qatar U16 as they gear up to play two more friendlies

The Indian U16 national team registered a 1-0 win over the Qatar U16 side at the Aspire Academy outdoor grounds in Qatar, on Sunday night.

Ravi Bahadur Rana and Givson Singh Moirangthem created notable chances for the Blue Colts in the goalless first half before Lalrokima, who replaced Ravi in the second half, scored the 75th minute winner.

The coach of the Indian team, Bibiano Fernandes has recently led his boys to the 2017 South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) U-15 Championship in Nepal and is now preparing for the 2018 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) U-16 Championship qualifiers that are also slated to be held in Nepal.

"Yesterday's​ was a tactical game. The defenders were the highlight as they hardly gave away a clear cut scoring chance for Qatar, but we still need to work on some areas," Fernandes informed Goal from Qatar.

With the team heading back to Nepal for the qualifiers, the Goan tactician has maintained that adapting to the conditions there after their stint in the Gulf nation will not be a concern.

"Training here will not affect us much because thankfully our SAFF Championship was in Nepal and adapting to Nepal again will be easy for the boys," he explained.

Fernandes also revealed that his side will play two more friendlies in Qatar before they set for Nepal where they face Palestine on 20th September in their first fixture of the qualifiers. Iraq and hosts Nepal are the other two teams in India's group.

"We will be playing two more friendlies in Qatar - vs Al Sadd U16 on 10th September and vs Al Ahli U16 on 15th September.

With no reported Injuries to the team, Fernandes is likely to persist with same 11 who started for the SAFF Championship final and against Qatar U16 in Sunday's friendly.