Bangladesh women will take on India in the final of the SAFF Under-16 Women’s Football Championship today.
The final will take place at ANFA Complex in Lalitpur, Nepal at 3:15 p.m. (BST).
Both the Bangladesh and India are the most successful nations in women's football in any age group or national sides’ tournament in the SAFF Championship.
Bangladesh girls demonstrated very impressive performances throughout the tournament, as on their way to move into the final they defeated Nepal 2-0 in their opening round-robin league match and then outclassed strong India by 3-1 in the second match to confirm the final berth and thrashed Bhutan by 6-0 in the last match of group stage to maintain their supremacy.
India also made a flying start crushing Bhutan 7-0 and qualified into final drubbing Nepal by 10-0 in the group phase.
Saiful Bari Titu’s side will be ahead of India before the nerve-wrecking final following their 3-1 victory over India, but there is every possibility that India would bounce back in the final after their huge-margin win over host Nepal in the previous match.
In the pre-match press conference on Saturday of today’s final, Bangladesh's head coach Saiful Bari Titu said that his girls worked hard and confirmed the final with one match in hand. He said the two best teams will play the final match and anything can happen in the final.
Titu also showed due respect to India team, Titu said that India is a very strong side, particularly, their attacking strength is very remarkable.
Bangladesh's coach thinks that the final match would be exciting for both the teams. Titu also said, “Any final match is a high pressure encounter. Those who overcome it and commit less mistake in the match have chance to win the final.”
Bangladesh skipper Arpita Biswas, who was one of the scorer in the win over India match, said the team is in good shape at the moment and they have taken one and half month preparation for the SAFF tournament.
She said they have good team spirit at the moment and want to continue it and players are prepared to give their best effort in the final to win the trophy.
Bangladesh earlier won title of the SAFF U-15 in 2017 and U-19 title in 2021. In the latest meeting between the two sides U-19 final ended with the trophy being shared at a match held last month in Dhaka.