The Indian Football team lifted the South Asian Football Federation’s (SAFF) Under 15 Women’s Championship 2019 title yet again as they beat Bangladesh 5-3 on penalties, yesterday. The SAFF U-15 Women’s Championship this year saw only four countries taking part.
After their impressive performance in the group stages of the competition, India and Bangladesh successfully made it to the finals of the championship. It was their third successive appearance in the finals of the SAFF U-15 Women’s Championship since the commencement of the competition in 2017.
The final match kick-started with the defending champions, India dominating the show from the start with frequent attacks and good control of the game. On the other hand, the resolute Bangladeshi girls stood tall to deny the Indians from breaking the deadlock. Despite all those efforts and chances created in the game, the two sides struggled to find the back of the net.
The game was further extended as the Changlimithang stadium suffered a power cut for about 27 minutes. This was the third time in the whole tournament that the lights went off in the stadium during a match. However, the game resumed right after the fixation of the power failure but with only three stadium lights working.
The game ended goalless. The match then directly went into the dreaded penalty shootout.
The penalty shootout saw Bangladesh missing the first-spot kick with their skipper Shamsunnahar hitting the crossbar.
Taking advantage of the lead, the Indian captain Shilky Devi slotted home from the final spot-kick to hand her side a 5-3 win.
“Girls gave their hundred per cent and in the match, they did excellently. They gave their hundred per cent and excellent job and I want to thank all my players as they did very well,” said Golam Rabbani Choton, the Head Coach for Bangladesh.
“It was a very great final, both teams played very well and fought very hard in the pitch. Bangladesh defended very well and it was difficult for us to score. The girls are very young and keep improving in future and this was all about the hard work, persistence and dedications,” said Alex Ambrose, the Head Coach of India.
The SAFF U-15 Women’s Championship is an international football competition for women’s under−15 national teams organised by SAFF every year.
Passang Dorji
