In the ceremony held today for the AFC Challenge Cup 2012 draw, the 2 groups were decided. India were placed alongside DPR Korea, Tajikistan and Philippines in the Group B. This is no doubt the group of death as 3 out of 4 teams are former champions of the tournament. Tajikistan won the inaugural championship while India and DPR Korea were the champions in 2008 and 2010 respectively.
In the group A, host Nepal are comfortably placed with Turkmenistan, Palestine and Maldives. 3 teams from this tournament are competing in the SAFF Championship 2011 and would be keen to measure each other’s strengths. They are India, Nepal and Maldives.
The winner of the tournament gets the grand push to the next Asian Cup and will qualify directly.
The tournament will kick off on 8th March with Nepal taking on Philippines.
GROUP A
- Nepal
- Palestine
- Maldives
- Turkmenistan
GROUP B
- India
- DPR Korea
- Tajikistan
- Philippines
Looking at India’s performance against pacey Afgans in SAFF, I would say the chance of India making into semi final are less, unless there some drastic changes that are taken. India are very slow in mid-field and thus are not able to press or counter attack effectively.
phillipenes and tajik are also good teams ,india will not make semis,
Actually its not a bad thing to be grouped with DPR Korea. This would mean we would not have to face them in the semi-final!