Defending champions Bangladesh in a bid to make their final berth set to face off Bhutan in the semifinal to take place today.
The match will take place at Dashraath Rangasala Stadium, Kathmandu at 1.45 p.m. (BST) followed by the second semifinal between the hosts Nepal and India.
Impressive Bangladesh women’s football team, had their practice at the Anfa Football Complex, Lalitpur, Kathmandu when coach Peter Butler also has a theoretical class with the players at the hotel.
Butler, who watched the match between Bhutan against Maldives when he keenly observed the scoring abilities of Bhutanese women, who scored 17 goals in their two group matches when they just demolished the opponents (Maldives) by 13-0.
Coach Butler from the awareness worked the defenders to deal successfully with the Bhutanese forwards.
Bangladesh women never lost to Bhutan when in the last edition’s semifinal in 2022 Bangladesh outplayed them (Bhutan) by 8-0.
But the Tahura, Sanina and Co. are not taking lightly the newlook Bhutan, who made a huge change in last two years.
However, Bangladesh stormed into the semi-finals after defeating the formidable India.
The reigning champions of the SAF Women’s Championship just outclass the top fvourites India by 3-1, as it was a repeat of their 2022 group stage match, when the women in Red and Green defeated their Indian rivals by same margin at the same ground - Dashraath Stadium, Kathmandu.
Bangladesh captain Sabina said, “Every team is very good and unpredictable, all are came here to win, so there is no way to take any opponents lightly."
“Bhutan scored 17 goals in the two group matches and scored 13 against Maldives, that meant, now they very strong sides. We want to play our best to reach the final,” said Sabina.
Meanwhile, Bhutan is well known to Sabina, Maria Manda, Monika and Ritu Parna, as they played in the AFC (women’s) Challenge League for Royal Thimpu College in Bhutan in August. So, it would be an advantage of the Bangladesh team to face the Bhutanese challenge.
