Girls focused on UAE fixture

Captain Krishna Rani was a bit nervous ahead of the crucial match against Chinese Taipei on Saturday, but she shrugged off her nervousness and played a major role as Bangladesh went on to win the game 4-2 and seal qualification for the final round of AFC U-16 Women's Championship. The girl from Tangail was much more relaxed yesterday as Bangladesh prepared for their final group match against United Arab Emirates.

The match will kick off at 11:00am at the Bangabandhu National Stadium, with BTV World telecasting the match live from the venue. Chinese Taipei will play against Iran later while Singapore will take on Kyrgyzstan in the last match of the group.

Despite confirming the final round berth, the hosts are determined to end the campaign with a hundred percent win record.

“As this is the last match, we want to keep our winning streak. We want to keep our aggression we showed against other teams,” said Krishna, who has struck six goals so far.

“We will have to prove that we are the champions of the group,” said the grade nine student, who is now dreaming of playing in the U-17 Women's World Cup.

Despite conceding an early lead against Chinese Taipei, Krishna did not lose her confidence and scored a goal herself after having won two penalties, both of which were duly converted by defender Shamsunnahar.   

“I knew that the whole team would have broken down if I had failed to convert the penalties. I believed in myself and was determined to convert the penalties. I decided to hit the fist penalty to the right-hand side of the goalkeeper and I did it,” said Shamsunnahar.

Bangladesh are on top of the six-team table with 12 points from four matches, three more than Iran and Chinese Taipei while UAE are in fourth position with four points from four matches.

Even if Bangladesh lose to UAE, whom they handed a 6-0 defeat in last edition, and the match between Iran and Chinese yields a positive result for any of the sides, then Bangladesh will be joined by any of those teams on 12 points. But the hosts having a win against both those teams will be through, thanks to head-to-head record.