AFC U-16 Women’s Championship: Bangladesh girls a day away from history

The Bangladesh U-16 girls are only a day away from making history as they will play in the 2017 AFC U-16 Women’s Championship for the first time in the country’s women football history following an amazing journey of qualification. Asia’s biggest U-16 women’s football event, which features the continent’s top eight teams, is all set to kick off in Thailand’s eastern province of Conburi on Sunday with the Group A match between South Korea and China but the Bengal girls will take the field a day later against two-time title holder and reigning champion North Korea. The tournament’s first edition took place in 2005 through the AFC U-17 Women’s Championship in South Korea where Bangladesh were one of 11 participating countries but the event didn’t require any qualification. It was the same year Bangladesh formed their first women’s football team for an international event. They however, lost all their three group matches but put up a hard-fought display against Guam and Hong Kong.

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Also read: Bangladesh girls arrive in Thailand

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Bangladesh participated in the men’s version of the tournament for the first time in 1986 but failed to qualify in the last five editions since 2006. Since then, five more editions took place but Bangladesh failed to qualify for any while their other group opponents participated in the tournament on a regular basis. Japan are three-time champion, North Korea twice and Australia are also emerging as one of top teams in the region. The pre-tournament press-conference was held on Saturday where Bangladesh head coach Golam Rabbani Choton said, “Our target is to play better football in every match. Our players will gather good experience which will help our women's football development in future.” Japan head coach said they will fight for the championship while North Korea head coach set their initial target of finishing among the top three teams so that they qualify for the Women’s U-17 World Cup.