Choton full of confidence

Having established their supremacy in the South Asian region, the Bangladesh Under-15 women's team will face a test against comparatively stronger opposition in an invitational football tournament in Hong Kong next month.

The four-nation U-15 women's football tournament will see Bangladesh open their campaign against Chinese Taipei on March 30 before taking on Iran and Hong Kong. The teams will play each other only once in a round-robin format with the top-finisher emerging as champions.

Golam Rabbani Choton's charges have been training since the completion of the SAFF U-15 Women's Championship in December and the coach is optimistic of producing good results in Hong Kong although he admitted the hosts are a bit of an unknown quantity.

"I believe the girls will play better in the tournament which is expected to be a competitive one. And the girls can also earn valuable experience ahead of the AFC U-16 Championship Qualifiers and U-15 SAFF Championship later this year," said Choton.

"We want to pick up where we left off in the SAFF U-15 Women's Championship. We have beaten Chinese Taipei and Iran previously in the 2016 AFC U-16 Women's Championship Qualifiers but we don't have any idea about Hong Kong. However I think Iran are equal in strength to India while Chinese Taipei are a bit further ahead, but all four teams will be equally strong sides," opined Choton, adding that his charges have been going through intense training akin to the one the U-16 team had ahead of the final round of the AFC U-16 Women's Championship in Thailand last year.

"We will be hoping to display better showings and take the ground with hopes of victory," concluded a confident Choton.