Bhutan’s national women football team is in Nepal for the 5th edition of the South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) Women’s Championship 2019. Bhutan will play their first match against team Nepal in the inauguration match of the tournament next week.
As per the released fixtures of the SAFF women’s championship 2019, the competition will begin from March 12 in Biratnagar, Nepal.
Bhutan is placed in Group A along with the host nation Nepal and the runners up of the competition in 2016, Bangladesh. While Group B consists of India, Maldives and Sri Lanka.
30 senior national players were called upon for international duty. Only 20 of them were selected. They have been trained in the Gelephu Football Academy since January.
“We have been working on their physicality, power and match tactics. For two months, we have trained well and now we have selected 20 of them for the tournament,” Sung Jae Lee, the Bhutanese Head Coach, said.
Despite taking part in the competition for the third time, the Bhutanese side has never been the champions of the event. So far, only team India holds the perfect record of winning the championship every time.
As part of the preparation and to adapt to the environment, the girls will begin with their practice matches starting from tomorrow. As in the past, the tournament will be played in a league-cum-knockout format.
Only six South Asian nations will take part in the competition this time.
