Bangladesh women hold Nepal

The Bangladesh women's football team salvaged some pride from their AFC 2020 Olympic Qualifying campaign after forcing a 1-1 draw against Nepal in their last group match in Yangon yesterday.

The women in red and green, who suffered a 5-0 defeat against Myanmar and a 7-1 drubbing against India in their first two matches, put on a stiff resistance against the Nepalese women to end their campaign with a point.

Defender Akhi Khatun turned in a corner kick in the second minute of stoppage time to equalise after Niru Thapa had given Nepal a 17th minute lead. This is the first time at the senior level that Bangladesh have managed to hold Nepal to a draw after having lost all their previous encounters.

Akhi, who was named the most valuable player in the recent SAFF U-18 Championship, was delighted with her goal.

“I feel very good to have scored in the Olympic qualifiers and that the team has earned its first points,” the tall centre-back said after the match.

“Nepal are a very experienced side. Our young players have done extremely well to hold them to a draw which shows we are improving at this level,” coach Golam Rabbani Choton said. “We recovered physically and emotionally well after the India game. We prepared professionally for the Nepal game and our plan worked very well.”

“I was extremely pleased that Akhi [Khatun] scored from a corner as we spent a lot of time in our preparations on set plays,” the coach added.

The team will return to Dhaka this afternoon.