'I believe India are going to the FIFA women's WC'

For Crispin Chhetri, 46 days between now and the AFC Women’s Asian Cup equals to 22 training sessions.

- Dhiman Sarkar

“That is how many days I will have after factoring in friendlies, recovery and travel,” he said. “But that is the lot of national team coaches.”On Thursday, Chettri and the India women's football team will leave for Manavgat, Turkey, for three matches between January 18 and 24 against clubs from Switzerland as well as Ukraine's Metalist Kharkiv. “We couldn't get international teams because it is not a FIFA window,” said Chhetri, the head coach.

That'll change in the Turkish Cup next month. The squad will then travel to Australia on February 10 to acclimatise and play a couple of friendlies ahead of the AFC Women’s Asian Cup beginning on March 1. First-time qualifiers India open against Vietnam on March 4, play Japan three days later and Chinese Taipei on March 10.

“The good thing is we know about our opponents. Recently, Chinese Taipei played Nepal; we saw Vietnam in the SEA Games. Japan, we can’t talk much about because they are one of the best teams in the world,” he said.