Bangladesh showed dogged performance in the dress rehearsal of the final and held India for a 1-1 draw to boost their confidence
Ever since the inception of SAFF U-15 Women’s championship, the two teams – Bangladesh and India- are dominating the tournament and the familiar foes will lock horns Tuesday to seal the title and gain supremacy.
Bangladesh became champions of the first edition of the meet when they beat their neighbours at home back in 2017, but the biggest nation of the territory clinched the title in the second time, in 2018 at Bhutan where they beat the girls in red and green by the identical score of 1-0.
Although the change of players is inevitable in age-level teams in almost every tournament, the Bangladesh team sheet has one common name, Golam Rabbani Choton, who has become a mainstay as the country’s age-level women teams’ coach.
The charismatic coach was confident his charges will avenge last year’s defeat by winning Tuesday at Changlimithang Stadium, Thimphu and bring joy to the nation.
“Our girls are very confident now. They are looking forward for a good result. We have good records in Bhutan and I hope tomorrow [Tuesday], the girls will fight for a good result and provide our country with a good occasion to celebrate,” said Choton to media yesterday.
Bangladesh lost a few key players due to age-binding and Choton had to rebuild the squad but the rookies responded well by remaining unbeaten in the group stage.
Shaheda Akter Ripa caught eyes of the football lovers with a sumptuous goal against Nepal in the second match. She was also the one who opened the scoring for Bangladesh in their first match against hosts, whom they beat 2-0.
“We came in the tournament with a fairly new team. Our expectations were to play well. Our girls performed well. We needed to win the first match and they did it. The second match against Nepal was very crucial and they also won that in order to seal the final berth,” said Choton.
Bangladesh showed dogged performance in the dress rehearsal of the final and held India for a 1-1 draw to boost their confidence.
“And against India, it was a big test as most of our players are new and we rested a few key players for the final and we included some new players. Our players acted according to the plan, played well and yielded good results,” said the Bangladesh coach.
Source: New Age.
