Turkish Women’s Cup 2024: India finishes runner-up after narrow loss to lower-ranked Kosovo in the final
The HinduIndia’s hopes of winning its first-ever senior title outside the SAFF region were dashed by an injury-time goal by lower-ranked Kosovo in its concluding round-robin Turkish Women’s Cup match here on Tuesday. Seeking better stability in front of its own back four, India made one change to the starting XI from its previous match against Hong Kong – Sangita Basfore replaced Karthika Angamuthu. India, while sitting on a mid-press on most occasions, chose its moments to impose a high press on the Kosovo back-four, a tactic that yielded several chances and also served to confuse the opposition defence. Soumya Guguloth had the best chance of the first half and perhaps even the game on the quarter-hour mark, when Pyari Xaxa managed to steal the ball at the edge of the Kosovo box, before playing it to Indumathi Kathiresan, who threaded a delicate through ball between the lines, to Soumya behind the defence.