With one eye on World Cup, jr girls NFC set to begin in Kolhapur

Kohlapur (PTI): A month on from the announcement of India hosting the FIFA U-17 women's World Cup in 2020, the junior girls' national football championship is all set to kick off here on Saturday.

The tournament, now entering its fifth edition, will serve as a platform for scouting talent for next year's World Cup and will see a total of 27 teams take part across eight groups, with the winner from each group moving into the quarterfinals.

The first three editions were won by Manipur and the previous one, which was held in Cuttack, saw Tamil Nadu lift the trophy. The defending champions have been drawn against Delhi and Madhya Pradesh in Group B and will be in action on the opening day, which will feature a total of six matches being played across two venues – the Rajarshi Shahu Stadium and Polo Ground.

The fixtures for Day 1 (Saturday) are as follows: Jharkhand vs Jammu and Kashmir (Group A) Tamil Nadu vs Madhya Pradesh (Group B) Manipur vs Uttarakhand (Group C) Goa vs Tripura (Group C) West Bengal vs Arunachal Pradesh (Group D) Haryana vs Karnataka (Group D).