U-15 women eye title

Hosts Bangladesh want to prove a point of possessing talented players in the pipeline through the 4th SAFF U-15 Women's Championship, which gets underway at the Birshreshtha Shaheed Mostafa Kamal Stadium in Kamalapur tomorrow.

The girls in red and green became champions in the inaugural edition in 2017 but lost the final twice in the 2018 and 2019 editions to India, who this time pulled out of the tournament, leaving the championship to a three-nation competition for the first time.

Now Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan will be vying for the title in double-league basis tournament with top finishers becoming champions.

"Talented players are coming out through the pipeline and our target is to prove this in this championship even though this group of players, except for one player, doesn't have international experience," head coach Golam Rabbani Choton said at a press conference yesterday.

"We have picked this group of girls through trials in June and since then they have been working hard and improved a lot in physical, technical and tactical aspects. The girls are determined to prove their improvement on the ground," said Choton.

The players have, on average, played 20 competitive matches in different domestic competitions and are expected to use that experience at international level.

Captain Ruma Akter was upbeat ahead of her first-ever international assignment.

"Of course, we will go there to win the championship despite having not played any international match before. We have been working hard since June to produce good results," said the BKSP student.

Fixtures:

Nov 1: Bhutan vs Bangladesh

Nov 3: Nepal vs Bhutan

Nov 5: Bangladesh vs Nepal

Nov 7: Bangladesh vs Bhutan

Nov 9: Bhutan vs Nepal

Nov 11: Nepal vs Bangladesh