Hosts look to set the tone
Hosts Bangladesh are looking forward to setting the tone of their AFC U-16 Women's Championship Qualifiers campaign when they take on Bahrain in their tournament opener at the Birshreshtha Shaheed Mostafa Kamal Stadium in Kamalapur today.
The match will get underway at 3:30pm after Lebanon's match against United Arab Emirates, which begins at 11:30am at the same venue.
Although Bangladesh, who reached the final round of the AFC U-16 Women's Championship two years ago, were tipped as favourites in the five-team group, Lebanon and Vietnam appear to be strong contenders. Both teams got flying starts to their campaigns on Saturday as Vietnam outplayed UAE 4-0 while Lebanon imposed an 8-0 defeat on Bahrain.
Today's match against Bahrain may not be too much of a challenge for the home side, considering the way Bahrain played their first match, but Bangladesh coach Golam Rabbani Choton wants his charges start the tournament strongly.
“It is always important to start the first match of the tournament in a positive mood. We are prepared and the girls are ready to give their hundred per cent effort to win. We also want to set the tone of our performance and the girls will do everything they need to to win the match,” said Choton yesterday.
Having watched both of the opening day's fixtures, Choton believes that these qualifiers are not going to be easy going for the home side.
“The girls have been asked to be confident, not over-confident, because two teams have already proved their worth in their first matches. We must take every match importantly and look forward. Tomorrow [Monday] is our first match, we have to show our own performance rather than thinking much of the opponents,” said Choton, adding that they are, however, pondering about how to maximise their scoring margins.
However, the current under-16 squad is considered to be a more experienced and overall better side than the team that beat Chinese Taipei, Iran, UAE, Kyrgyzstan and Singapore the last time around as the current team recently participated in three international tournaments from last December to August this year, clinching two of the three titles and becoming runners-up in the other.
More than 12 of the players who participated in the 2016 AFC U-16 Women's Championship Qualifiers were picked for the current squad and are regular features in the playing eleven. Choton will likely use the same squad that played in August's SAFF U-15 Women's Championship against Bahrain today.