The qualifying round of the AFC Under-16 Women’s Championship Group C matches gets underway today with hosts Bangladesh facing Iran at the Bangabandhu National Stadium.
A total of 22 teams split into four groups will take part in the qualifiers with four top teams joining the four semi-finalists of the last edition in the next year’s final round in Thailand.Apart from Bangladesh and Iran, the other four teams of the Group C are — United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Chinese Taipei and Kyrgyzstan.
In the opening match of the day, Chinese Taipei will take on Kyrgyzstan at 11:00am while UAE will lock horns with Singapore in the second match at 3:00pm and the match between Bangladesh and Iran will kick-off at 6:00pm.
Bangladesh coach Golam Rabbani Choton, who has been guiding the team for the last two-and-a-half month, was confident of making a winning start.
‘Iran are a very strong and one of the best sides of the tournament. But we are also ready to offer them a big challenge,’ said Choton during a pre-tournament press conference at the Bangladesh Football Federation House on Friday.
‘It will be a tough match and we will definitely play for a win. If we can win tomorrow’s [Saturday’s] game, it will boost our team spirit which will also help us to look forward for the final round.’
Iran coach Shadi Mahini wised to finish the campaign as champions.
‘All the participating teams came to Bangladesh to win and Iran are not different. We like to win and we want to become champions,’ she said.
‘Our team is a mixture of Under-14 and Under-16 players, who played here last year in Bangladesh and some new talented players have been included as well.’
-With New Age input
