Bangladesh Under-16 women’s football team will face three-time champions Japan in their second Group B match of the Under-16 Women’s Championship at the Chonburi Stadium in Thailand today.
The match will kick-off at 4:00pm Bangladesh Standard Time.
Bangladeshi girls began their campaign with a huge 0-9 defeat over reigning champions North Korea while Japan thrashed Australia 5-0 in their first match.
Bangladesh were hoping for an improved result today after a disastrous performance in their opening match.
Both the sides faced each other only once at this level way back in 2005 AFC Under-16 Championship qualifiers in South Korea when Bangladesh conceded 24 goals, their worst ever performance.
Before facing another Asian giants, Bangladesh’s head coach Golam Rabbani Choton said he worked hard in the last two days to restore the confidence of girls.
‘Our players actually lost their concentration in the first match after receiving immense pressure from mighty North Korea,’ said Choton.
‘I hope the players will play their natural game against Japan without getting nervous. I told my players not to think much about the opponents.’
Bangladesh travelled to Japan twice in the last year to take their preparations for the final round and Choton believed that this experience would help his side in today’s match.
‘We played two warm-up matches against Sakai Academy of Japan. I found in those matches that they play short- passing football and this Japan side was used to follow the same strategy.’
Choton hinted that he would make two changes in the starting XI with Mammuda likely to replace goalkeeper Roksana and midfielder Monika taking the place of Akhi.
Meanwhile, attacking midfielder Mousumi Jahan claimed that their coach tried hard to motivate them in the last couple of days.
‘Coach always tried to motivate us and we also forgot what happened in the last match. We know the playing style of Japan and coach also instructed us to handle them.
‘We hope we will follow coach’s instruction tomorrow [today].’
-With New Age input
