Saff U-20 Football: Girls cement South Asian dominance

Bangladesh women footballers stood tall once again in the South Asian region as they emerged undefeated champions with a convincing 3-0 victory over Nepal in the final of the SAFF U-20 Women's Championship at the Birshreshtha Shaheed Mostafa Kamal Stadium yesterday.

One goal apiece from Shaheda Akter Ripa, Shamsunnahar Junior and Unnoti Khatun was good enough for Bangladesh to lift the trophy for the third time out of four editions of the age-group competition, having been crowned champions in the U-18 format in 2018 and the U-19 format in 2021.

Prior to the all-important final match in front of an almost capacity crowd, Bangladesh were confident enough to beat Nepal, with a record of five wins and a draw against the Himalayan nation. And yesterday's dominating performance throughout the match clearly justified the confidence head coach Golam Rabbani Choton had.

It is often said that Bangladesh's present youth teams lack quality since the golden generation of women footballers -- the likes of Maria Manda, Krishna Rani Sarker, Monica Chakma, Sanjida Akhter, Akhi Khatun, Masura Parveen among others -- are no longer eligible to play the age-group tournament. However, their successors proved that they have been heading in the right direction.

Nepal did pose a threat, especially after putting up a brave performance against India to storm into the final. But Shamsunnahar, Aklima Khatun, Ripa, Afeida Khandokar, Swapna Rani, and Mahfuza Khatun were unbreakable on a familiar ground with a cheering home crowd supporting the girls throughout the match.

The first 15 minutes of the game was fought on level terms as the two sides aimed to take control of midfield before the home side stamped their authority. The Nepalese girls were cornered time and again and remained busy thwarting quick counter attacks one attack after another.

Ripa was outstanding on the night as she was pivotal to the build-up of most attacks, apart from scoring the opener. In the 17th minute, the girl from Cox's Bazar ran down the right flank to whip a cross for Aklima, who saw her low drive parried by goalkeeper Kabita BK.

Nepal attempted to initiate sporadic attacks, creating an opening in the 36th minute. Amisha Karki received the ball in the box and turned around quickly around her marker to drive a low shot that narrowly missed the near post, much to the relief of Bangladesh goalkeeper Rupna Chakma.

Ripa had a go from distance and she too missed the target by a fine margin in the 38th minute. The BKSP student, however, did not make a mistake to pounce on a poor clearance from defender Kumari Tamang as Ripa's shot from outside the box caught the keeper off-guard to break the crucial deadlock in the 42nd minute.

Shamsunnahar then doubled the lead in the stoppage time of the first half. Capitalising on yet another fumble from the Nepal defence, the Bangladesh captain made a darting run before placing the ball past the advancing keeper.

After resumption, Bangladesh kept their intent intact on widening the margin by pressing from both flanks. 11 minutes into the second half, Shamsunnahar, who kept leading by example, came close to making it 3-0 but her tap in off a free-kick from Afeida was nicely blocked by the Nepal stopper.

Nepal then came close to reducing the margin in the 80th minute but Rupna made a brilliant save, diving low to her right to thwart a drive from Amisha. Substitute Unnoti then sealed off the match by tapping in a goal-bound free kick from Ripa three minutes from the final whistle.