I am happy with the way the team played against Hong Kong- Maymol Rocky

The Indian women's head coach also revealed that she is hoping to continue the momentum.

After the Indian women’s team defeated Hong Kong 5-2 on Monday (January 21) courtesy of a brace from Dangmei Grace and a goal apiece by Sanju, Sumithra and Ratanbala Devi, head coach Maymol Rocky dubbed India’s performance as clinical despite not dwelling on the result.

Speaking after the match, Maymol said, “We took our chances and we scored. It was a clinical performance by the team but that does not mean that we dwell on the result.”

“There are still a lot of things to be worked upon and things to be rectified but I am happy with the way the team played and performed. Now we gear ourselves for the next match tomorrow (January 23) once again against them (Hong Kong).”

“We will use tomorrow’s match once again as an area to experiment with our tactics, hoping to continue our winning momentum," she added.

Dangmei Grace, who opened the goalscoring floodgates for the team in as early as the 6th minute stated, “We wanted to start off with a win and that is what we did. Now we aim to continue our winning form.”

“When we play them again tomorrow, it can be difficult for us as they (Hong Kong) will be apprehensive of our abilities and might sit back and defend more.”

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“The best part is that we are creating chances," said Ratanbala Devi, who scored India’s fifth goal in the 83rd minute. “As long as we are creating chances, goals will come. We could have even scored seven goals yesterday had we made the most of the 50-50 opportunities. However, we are confident of getting another win going into the second match against Hong Kong.”

The silver lining might be the five goals that India scored, but that does not take away the fact that the team conceded twice. Defender Sweety Devi agrees, “If we could have got a clean sheet, it would have been very special. But we learn from our mistakes and we will look to rectify them. We gave their forwards a tough time but momentary lapses cost us two goals.”

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The last time India faced Hong Kong in 2017 in the Women’s Asian Cup Qualifiers, India had won 2-0. “Every nation wants to develop and so have we in the last few years”, claimed Maymol. “The results are an indication of the potential the team has but still we are far away from our goal and these wins should not flatter us.”

The Indian team is preparing for the Olympic Qualifiers Round 2 and after tomorrow’s match against Hong Kong, they shall travel to play two back-to-back matches against Indonesia on January 27 and January 30 respectively.