The Bhutanese Under-18 women’s national football team picked up their first international win by defeating Maldives 13-nil at the Changlimithang National Stadium yesterday.
The win is the biggest victory claimed by the dragon girls after the 6-nil win against Sri Lanka by the Under-15 women’s national team last month.
Having lost their opening match 4-nil to the mighty Indians, the Under-18 dragons girls had to secure a win against the Maldivians to stay in the competition.
Both the sides, new to each other, were playing their major international tournament for the very first time.
However, it was Bhutan who had the upper hand as they opened the scoreline early with Yeshi Bidha netting in two back to back goals.
Unlike in the previous matches, Bhutan looked aggressive this time, having most of the ball possession and command to the game.
The Bhutanese side also had a stronghold in the midfield right from the start. Taking advantage of it, the host nation impressed the spectators by scoring a series of goals.
To the delight of the Under-18 girls and the Bhutanese fans gathered, the match ended 13-nil in favour of the Bhutanese girls.
“With India, we focused more on defensive tactics as they were stronger than us. But our girls were nervous and tensed against the Indians. However, they did perform well. And in today’s game, we had to focus more on our attacks. We only had three defenders and six to seven of them were kept in offensive positions. And Sonam Choden, one of the game makers, did well and that’s why we had a good game today,” Head Coach Sung Jae Lee said.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh secured the biggest win of the tournament by crushing Pakistan 17 goals to nil in the second game played yesterday.
Team Pakistan now becomes the first team to be eliminated from the championship after losing both the games in the group stages.
For now, despite the biggest win achieved by the dragon girls, the girls will have to wait for the match between the dominant Indians and the Maldives tomorrow.
A win or a draw for the Indians girls would easily help Bhutan advance to the semi-finals as the runners-up from group A.
Bhutan could either face Bangladesh or Nepal, the winner from group B, in the semi-finals of the championship.
