Bangladesh girls have emerged as the Group B champion in the SAFF under-15 football after beating Nepal on Monday.
The girls in red and green clinched a 3-0 win against Nepal at the Changlimithang Stadium in Thimpu, Bhutan.
In the day’s earlier match, India defeated Bhutan 1-0 to emerge as the Group A champion.
Goals from Tohura Khatun, Maria Manda, and Sajeda Khatun ensured Bangladesh topped Group B and clinched a semi-final spot.
Tohura opened the scoring in the 46th minute. Her goal came in the dying-end of the first-half from a wonderfully orchestrated corner as she latched-on to a lobbed pass to leap-up and shoot with her left-foot to put the ball on the top-right of the goal.
Maria’s goal came early in the second-half on the 51st minute. The Nepal goalkeeper had accidentally misplaced her pass to the opposition just outside the d-box but Maria engineered a beautiful finish from 30-yards out, curling in her long-range effort to hit the top-left inside the net. This was perhaps the pick of the goals.
Sajeda ensured there would be no hiccups along the way as she netted one in the 67th minute to give her team an unassailable lead. Her effort was a smart one where she took advantage of some lapse defending from the Nepalese girls and she managed to sneak in her shot as the defender lost control and the ball ended up in the bottom-left corner of the net, beyond the outstretched arms of the keeper.
Bangladesh remained largely dominant throughout the match getting 11 shots on target out of 23 whereas Nepal could only manage 2 out of 4.
Defending champions Bangladesh started their SAFF mission on Thursday when they thrashed Pakistan 14-0.
Bangladesh will face Bhutan in the semi-final on Aug 16 while India will play Nepal.
The final match is scheduled for Aug 18.