Defending champions Bangladesh started their mission of the SAFF U-19 Women's Championship 2024 registering a comfortable 3-1 win over Nepal at Bir Shreshtha Shaheed Shipahi Mostafa Kamal Stadium, Kamalapur on Friday.
Mosammat Sagarica scored twice for Bangladesh. The striker attack on Nepal defence again and again. Her team mates Ety Khatun, Marma and Puza Das destroyed Nepali defence.
Bangladesh pressured on Nepal from the beginning of the outing.
Sagarica scored 14th minutes of the encounter. Midfielder Munki scored the double for the team.
The first half ended 2-0.
After the interval Bangladesh pressured on Nepal. In the meantime Nepali forward Sukuria scored in 53rd minutes of the match. Bangladesh scored their third goal at the dying minutes. Sagorica celebrated her second and teams third goal.
Bangladesh won the title of the tournament in the inaugural edition in Dhaka three years back, and although most of those players have already advanced to the senior team, the new team under a new coach and led by new captain are determined to retain the title.
The previous edition of the tournament was started with the match between the hosts Bangladesh and Nepal at the Birshreshtho Shaheed Mostafa Kamal Stadium, and this time both sides took on each other in the second match.
Saiful Bari Titu, who took the charges of Bangladesh National women’s team since the departure of Golam Rabbani Choton in May last year, informed that the 23-member squad features 14 players from the Under-17 level, five from the senior team, three from BKSP and one player was picked up from open trial.
The veteran coach, who once did the duty with the national and youth football team, feels that the home environment and the round-the-year-training of the players will keep his side ahead of higher-ranked India and Nepal.
“These players may not have enough experiences and yet to get maturity in the international level like their predecessors, but they are physically fit to face the challenges,” Titu said.
“It is learning process for these young booters,” Titu added.
Captain Afeida Khandaker, one of the five players of the squad is experienced of playing for the senior national side said that they wanted to satisfy the crowd with success.
Afeida said, “Our target is to play in the final, and the first match will be very important in that regard. We have good players in every position. Hopefully we can make the fans happy.” The four-team tournament will end on February 8, top two teams after the round-robin stage will play in the final.