Hosts, India face off today

PAY HOMAGE WHICHEVER WAY YOU CAN: Players and officials of the Bangladesh women's football team on Thursday observe a minute's silence in front of a makeshift national mausoleum on the sandy beach of Cox's Bazar to mark the 40th Victory Day of the country.Photo: STAR

The Bangladesh women's football team spent Victory Day with a visit to the miniature National Mausoleum at the Kalatoli point in Cox's Bazar. The team also spent time beside the attractive sand sculptures made by students from the Art Institute of Dhaka University, depicting the seven Brishresthas of the country.
Trishna Chakma, Suinu Pru Marma, Farhana Khatun and others observed a minute's silence in front of the mausoleum before they travelled to the BDR Ground for an afternoon practice session ahead of today's last group match against favourites India. The match will be held at the Cox's Bazar Stadium at 2:30pm today.
In the other group match earlier in the day, Sri Lanka will play against minnows Bhutan before they head back home.
Both Bangladesh and India, having already confirmed their semifinal berth, will be fighting for the pride of becoming group champions.
But Bangladesh are keen to push the tag of favourites firmly on India, a task not made too difficult since they have never even managed a draw against their neighbours and lost 6-0 the last time they met.
Trishna Chakma, the captain of Bangladesh, admitted to feeling the nerves: “We are a bit tensed, because it's India.”
Aungmra Ching Marma, the hattrick scorer in the last game, also conceded that India were the favourites in this game.
“They have greater experience, they are playing for a longer time, and they are a better side than us. So it would be very difficult to beat them. But we are in good form, and we will try our best.”
India though are not taking this game lightly. Coach Shahid Jabbar rested four of his key players in the game against Sri Lanka and took off topscorer Susmita Mallik 60 minutes into the match to keep her fresh for this encounter.
And even a 7-0 victory in their last match was not enough to satisfy the coach Shahid Jabbar.
“I was not fully satisfied with the performance in that game. We will have to play better if we want to beat Bangladesh who have improved a lot since we last met.”