India test for BD women

Bangladesh women's football team will look to recover from their disastrous start in the 2020 Olympic Qualifiers when they take on India in their second match of Group C today.

The match will get underway at Yangon's Thuwunna Stadium at 2:30pm Bangladesh time.

Golam Rabbani Choton's charges started the Round 1 of qualifiers with a 5-0 drubbing at the hands of hosts Myanmar and to keep any realistic chances of progressing to the second round alive, they must beat India and follow it up with a win against Nepal in their last match.

India and Nepal are jointly in second position in the group, having shared the spoils of a 1-1 draw. Bangladesh, on the other hand, are yet to open their account while Myanmar sit pretty on top with three points.

The Bangladesh players, many of whom are yet to turn 16, are likely to face a tough challenge against an experienced India side, ranked 59th in the world.

“We have a very important match against India tomorrow (Sunday). They are the best team in South Asia and they have some experienced players,” coach Choton said in a video interview yesterday.

“However, we have gained experience with round-the-year practice and matches against teams like South Korea and Myanmar. So we are expecting a competitive match tomorrow. We are looking forward to giving a good account of ourselves,” the coach added.

If not for this qualifying campaign, this match will be important for the women in red and green to gauge how much fight they can put up against a side they have never managed to even force a draw against and who are expected to be their main competitors in the upcoming SAFF Women's Championship.