Bangladesh women’s football team will face an uphill task Wednesday but they were confident of fighting hard against a strong Indian side and hope for a good result in the semifinal of the 2019 SAFF Women's Championship.
The crucial encounter will take place at Sahid Rangsala Stadium at Biratnagar, Nepal and the match will be kicked off on 3 pm local time.
India were champions in all four previous editions of the tournament and they are also in red hot form as they won 6-0 and 5-0 respectively against Maldives and Sri Lanka to become champions of Group B in the ongoing edition.
The strongest team in the region has also dominated over their neighbours completely so far as they won eight and drew one of their previous nine matches against Bangladesh. The result of their last meeting was a massive 7-1 win in the Olympic qualification last year in Myanmar.
The girls in red and green, who lost to India 3-1 at the final in Maldives last year, started the tournament with a 2-0 win against Bhutan but lost to hosts Nepal 3-0 in the next match.
Despite all the odds, the runners-up of the last edition, Bangladesh is not ready to concede the match without a tough fight and the players expressed their confidence ahead the game on Tuesday.
Bangladesh women finished as Group A runners-up in the Saff Championship following their 3-0 loss at the hands of host Nepal at Sahid Rangashala in Biratnagar Saturday.https://t.co/GftbclMnbs#BFF #FOOTBALL #BANGLADESH #BANGLADESHFOOTBALL #SAFF #CHAMPIONSHIP #SAFFCHAMPIONSHIP
— Dhaka Tribune Sports (@Sport_DT) March 16, 2019
“We learnt some hard lessons against Nepal but we will be very proactive and positive in our play against India,” said Bangladesh captain Sabina Khatun.
Sabina’s teammate Rupna Chakma also remained upbeat.
“We have recovered very well since our group game with Nepal.
We are all looking forward to this game with real optimism,” said Bangladesh goalkeeper Rupna.
India will be missing the service of two of their experienced campaigners Bala Devi and Kamala Devi, who netted four goals in the Myanmar game, but the holders have enough prowesses to defend their title.
But India’s coach Maymul Rocky was cautious before the match.
“For semifinal and final match of SAFF both teams - Bangladesh and India - came here with preparation. We did not underestimate our opponent Bangladesh, because they are also a good team,” said the coach.