Sports Desk //

Bangladesh beat Nepal 3-2 in their second match of the U-20 Women’s SAFF Championship.

Coach Peter Butler made two changes in their second match against Nepal at the Kings Arena in Dhaka. Umhela Marma and Rupa Akhtar were dropped. Warna Khatun and Shanti Mardi entered the team. Despite the changes in the team, Bangladesh did not lack in attack. Bangladesh found the desired goal in the 13th minute with regular attack. Sagarika took the ball from the left wing and entered the box and passed the ball to Munki. Nepal’s defender saved the goal line. But Sinha shot the ball into the net with a return ball. This was her second goal in the tournament.

After the goal, Nepal increased the attack. Anisha Roy’s free-kick was blocked by the post in the 27th minute. A minute later, Bangladesh goalkeeper Swarna Rani thwarted another attack by Nepal. In the 33rd minute, Bangladesh’s defenders stopped Nepal’s attack. Bangladesh took the lead for the second time in the match in the 37th minute. Sagarika, who had previously scored a hat-trick, scored. Then in the 43rd minute, Nepal could not score a goal despite finding Bangladesh’s defense unprotected. Their Mina Deuba shot did not find the net for Bangladesh.

In the second half, both teams counterattacked. However, in the 56th minute of the match, the two teams were reduced to 10-man teams after the red cards of Bangladesh’s Sagarika and Nepal’s Shimran Rai. Nepal reduced the gap by scoring from a penalty in the 77th minute. Nepal equalized with a brilliant goal in the 86th minute. Bangladesh took the lead 3-2 with a brilliant goal by Trishna Rani in the last minute of added time. Bangladesh’s victory was assured after this goal.

In this four-team round-robin-based tournament, each team will play against each other twice. The glory of becoming the champion will be achieved only if it is at the top of the points list of this six-match league. The four rival teams are Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bhutan.

Host Bangladesh is the favorite this time in terms of strength. Last year, they became joint champions with India in the SAFF Under-19 tournament. This time, the goal is to retain that title. The red-green team is moving towards that goal with confidence at home.

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