A motivated Bangladesh Under-16 women’s team is ready to repeat their brilliant performance when they take on Singapore today in their second AFC Under-16 Championship Qualifiers at the Bangabandhu National Stadium. The match will kick off at 6:00pm and Bangladesh Television World will telecast it live. Bangladesh thrashed Iran, group C favourites, on Saturday by 3-0 and look forward to win against much weaker Singapore, who played out a 2-2 draw with United Arab Emirates in their first game.
Bangladesh coach Golam Rabbani Choton, however, refused to get complacent as he believed that it would be a long journey to achieve their ultimate goal of qualifying in the next year final round.
‘Every opponent is strong and they came here to finish top, so we will have to give our best effort against Singapore,’ said the coach prior to an hour long training session at the BFF Astro-Turf on Sunday evening.
Despite putting immense pressure on the Iranian defense line, Bangladesh failed to score in the first half. Bangladesh captain Krishna Rani said a change from their usual game plan they took their time to adapt to the situation.
‘Iran seemed bit slow so coach told us to use two wings to create attack and we created some real chances but couldn’t finish successfully,’ said Krishna.
‘But we had the confidence and during the interval coach told us to score at least one goal which would open up more opportunities. Finally we found the opponents’ net and left the field with a comfortable win.’
Bangladesh playmaker Sanjida Akter, who played an important role by leading the forward line, claimed they didn’t feel any pressure during the Iran match.
‘We beat Iran earlier in Nepal so we felt no pressure,’ she said.
‘We believed that if we could score one then we would get more.
‘Against Singapore we will take the field with same attacking mindset and I believe we will win the game.’
Singapore team had an hour long training camp at the BFF Turf and their coach Chen Cai Ying wished to earn at least one point from today’s match considering the strength of her opponents.
‘Home side is very strong and they played really well in the first match,’ she said.
‘A draw would be a good result against Bangladesh.’
Iran will take on Kyrgyzstan at 11:00am and Chinese Taipei will face UAE at 3:00pm at the same venue today.
-With New Age input
