A 34-member Bangladesh Women’s Football team reached Nepalese capital Kathmandu Saturday morning to compete in the seven-nation 6th SAFF Women’s Championship’ 2022 beginning on Tuesday.
Experienced booter Sabina Khatun accompanied the Bangladesh women’s side as captain, Maria Manda as vice-captain and Zakir Hossian Chowdhury as the team leader.
All the players of Bangladesh team staying at Soaltee Kathmandu Hotel are now in sound health, said a BFF media release Saturday afternoon.
Bangladesh will make their first practice session on Sunday (Sept 4) at the Army headquarters ground in Kathmandu from 4:45 pm to 6:15 pm (Bangladesh time).
Earlier, Bangladesh team was placed in tough Group A alongwith five times champions India, the Maldives and Pakistan while Group B team comprises hosts Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bhutan.
Hosts Nepal will play Bhutan in the opening day’s lone match at 5:30 pm at the Dasharath Stadium in Kathmandu.
Bangladesh will start their campaign taking on the Maldives on Wednesday (Sept 7) at 5:30 pm while two arch-rivals India and Pakistan will meet each other in the day:s other match at 1pm.
In the remaining group matches, Bangladesh will face Pakistan on Sept 10 at 1pm and will meet India on Sept 13 at 5:30 pm.
On completion of group matches, top two teams from each of the groups will play in the semifinals on Sept 16.
The final match will held on Sept 19 at 5 pm.
The morale of youthful Bangladesh women’s team is now high than all previous occasions after winning the two- match series 1-0 against upper ranked Malaysia recently.
Bangladesh beat Malaysia 6-0 in the first match and settled for a draw in the 2nd match.
Source: United News of Bangladesh