India U-19 Team to Play Two Friendlies in Serbia

New Delhi, Sep 8 (PTI) The Indian U-19 football team will be travelling to Serbia to play two international friendlies against the Serbian U-19 side on September 13 and September 17.

After playing in the four-nation tournament in Croatia against France, Croatia and Slovenia, the India U-19 team is now gearing up for a new challenge.

Both the matches are part of the exposure tour being organised by the All India Football Federation in coordination with SAI to provide the best possible preparation to the U-19 players for the forthcoming Hero I-League season and the U-19 AFC Championship qualification next year.

National team director Abhishek Yadav said playing regularly against top 50 youth national teams has its own significance.

"Serbia will be the fifth top-50 team (as per the FIFA rankings) that we will be facing within a month-and-a-half. In a 50-day period, we will be competing in six matches against regular World Cuppers from the two continents of world football -- South America and Europe," he stated.

"The matches have been part of competitions so there has been that added edge. The players and our all-Indian staff are learning from these tough tests. Motivation levels are now much higher. I am satisfied with the way we were able to design this pre-season and this is the way we aim to continue," he added.

"I am optimistic the influence of all these programmes will be seen for long to shape up a better future for Indian football."

The Indian U-19 team had earlier participated in the COTIF Cup in Spain before flying to Croatia for the Four-Nation Tournament.

In the COTIF Cup, India defeated U-20 Argentina 2-1 and held U-20 World Cup runners-up Venezuela to a goal-less draw.

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