The Indian U-17 women's football team lost 0-3 to Sweden in their opening match of the three-nation international tournament here but head coach Thomas Dennerby says he was "proud" of his players with the way they had fought against a strong opponent.
"We know Sweden are a strong team in Europe and everybody knows their senior team won the bronze medal at the World Cup this year. I'm definitely proud of the girls and we created some really good scoring chances. Maybe the accuracy wasn't enough in the final moments, but it's something we are working on," Dennerby said.
It has been less than two months since he took charge as head coach and Dennerby said the players were adapting to a new system.
"You can start to see -- in all departments -- defence, midfield, attack, that the girls are adapting more and more to what we want and are searching for. The vision is long-term and they are trying to adapt," said the Swede.
"With a new coach, it takes a little time for players to see what he is looking for. I think they are definitely doing very good at trying to follow the team's plans," he added.
Dennerby talked about the importance of playing quality opposition and the players getting used to it.
"You need to get used to playing against quality opposition. I can try to tell the girls when they have training that you need to reach this level with strength and conditioning, first touch. etc. But the best way to learn is doing it on the pitch and to understand in-game situations."
"Maybe we showed a little bit too much respect in the beginning and were a little bit anxious in the first 5-6 minutes. However, we became better and better. The second half was definitely good. We were compact and didn't let Sweden create many chances. We have work to do but from our point of view, it was a good start because we played a really good team."
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