Bhopal, May 5 (PTI) They can exploit the home advantage but there will be pressure too when holders Madhya Pradesh open their title defence at the senior women national hockey championship, coach Vandana Uikey said on Thursday.

Twenty seven teams will be vying for top honours in the tournament, beginning here on Friday.

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"There will be a bit of pressure playing at home as the title defenders, but I think we are fully prepared both mentally as well as physically,"MP coach Uikey said.

"We will go game-by-game, our first target is to qualify for the quarters, and then approach the knockout stage depending on who we play against."

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The participating sides have been divided into eight pools.

Pool A consists of Madhya Pradesh, Chandigarh and Bihar while Pool B features Haryana, Assam and Bengal. Punjab, Chhattisgarh and Tripura are in Pool C with Pool D comprising Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand.

Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh and Puducherry have been included in Pool E, while Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Arunachal, Andaman & Nicobar have been clubbed in Pool F.

Pool G consists of Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Goa and Gujarat, while Pool H features Odisha, Hockey, Telangana and Himachal.

After eight days of pool matches, the quarter-finals will be played on May 14, followed by the semi-finals on May 16. The title clash will be held final on May 17.

On the opening day of the tournament, Karnataka will play Arunachal, Tamil Nadu will be up against Andaman & Nicobar, Uttar Pradesh will face Goa, Delhi will take on Gujarat and Odisha will lock horns against Telangaga.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)