India being AFC Youth Championship against Kyrgystan

Kolkata, Apr 15 (UNI) India will play its inaugural tie against Kyrgystan on October 29 in the AFC Youth Championship to be held in Kolkata and Bangalore this year.

The draw for the championship was done here today by the AFC officials under the stewardship of AFC Deputy General Secratary Dato Paul Samuel and AFC Youth Organising committee Chairman Junji Ogura.

Acording to the draw India is clubbed with Korea republic, Kyrgystan and Jordan in Group A. Group-B comprises of China, Thailand, UAE and Australia, Group-C has Japan, Iran, Tajikistan and DPR Korea and Group-D has Iraq, Malaysia, Vietnam and Saudi Arabia.

India play their second match on October 31 against Jordan, while they play their last tie against Korea Republic on November 2.

While the matches of Group-A and B will be played in Kolkata, the matches of group C and D would be played in Sree Kanteerava Stadium in Bangalore.

''However, the fixture of Bangalore depends on the final inspection which will hapen in the first week of May. If the venue is found unfit then Hyderabad has been kept as a reserve venue,'' Dato Samuel said.

The two semi-finals, the fourth position matches and the final would be played in Kolkata.

AIFF Sceretary Alberto Colaco added that India will play a few preparatory tournaments for this championship. Their camp will begin in Bangalore from May 5 and on May 20 onwards they play two practice matches agaist the youth side from Japan. Following this they will head for a few tournaments abroad that will give them good match practice.

''Our players lack mental toughness and that has to be built with exposuure,'' he said.

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