The draw for the India Women's Asian Cup group was held at the AFC headquarters in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on October 28, 2022 BST.
In the draw, China's women's soccer team was assigned to Group A. The teams in the same group with them include the hosts, India women's soccer team, China's Taipei women's soccer team and Iran's women's soccer team. Fortunately, China's women's soccer team avoided the last Asian Cup champions and runners-up Japan and Australia, this grouping can be called a "godsend".
Our women's football team entered the tournament as a second-tier team, and theoretically had a two-thirds chance of drawing either Japan, the winners of the last Asian Cup, or Australia, the runners-up. However, in the end they were drawn against the hosts, the Indian women's soccer team. The Indian women's soccer team is finally making its debut after missing the final round of the Asian Cup for five consecutive years. They are currently ranked 57th in the FIFA rankings and their best record in the history of the Asian Cup is two runner-up finishes in 1979 and 1983.
Surprisingly, the last time the Indian women's soccer team participated in the final round was in the same group with our women's soccer team, which was in 2003, when our team beat India by a huge margin of 12-0 in the group stage. At that time, Bai Jie and Sun Wen scored five goals each, while Liu Ying and Zhao Lihong also contributed a goal each. In fact, in the past two matches, our women's soccer team scored a total of 28 goals and shut out their opponents.
Other opponents of our women's soccer team in the same group are China Taipei Women's Soccer Team and Iran Women's Soccer Team. China's Taipei women's soccer team is the only team in the final round of this year's championship experience, but their FIFA ranking is only 40th. This time they advanced to the top of Group A in the qualifying round, which is also their return to the game after missing three consecutive final rounds. However, their trip to the 2008 Asian Cup final round was not a pleasant one, with Japan, Australia and South Korea in the same group, eventually losing all three matches and conceding 17 goals. Previously, the Chinese Taipei Women's Football Team and China's 17 encounters, they did not score a single goal, and the opponent scored 53 goals, an average of 3 goals conceded.
The Iranian women's soccer team is the only "newbie" among the 12 teams, and this is their first time to participate in the final round of the Asian Cup; their FIFA ranking is only 72nd. Different from the strong position of Iranian men's soccer team in Asia, Iranian women's soccer team can only face the game with the mentality of "participation". Of course, for our women's soccer team, facing the Iranian women's soccer team is also a brand new encounter, because the two teams did not know each other before. Fortunately, the game with the Iranian women's football team will be held in the second round of the group stage, they still have the opportunity to understand the opponent through the first game with the Indian team.
Overall, our women's soccer team is not a big challenge in the group stage of this Asian Cup, and there is a high probability that they will finish at the top of the group. If everything goes well, then in the quarterfinals, our women's soccer team will probably face the third-place team in Group B/C. Although it is not yet possible to determine the exact opponent in the first round of the knockout stage, it is likely to be a team from Southeast Asia, which means that they are almost guaranteed to enter the quarterfinals, thus securing a ticket to the final round of the 2023 Women's World Cup. As for this year's Asian Cup, the real test for our women's soccer team, which has yet to decide on a manager, may begin with the semifinals.
