After losing to Iran’s Bam Khatoon, RTC Women’s FC plans to perform better in the next match against Hong Kong, China’s Kitchee SC. The team lost 1-2 to Iranian women yesterday in the opening Group D match of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Women’s Champions League at the Changlimithang stadium. The Head Coach of RTC Women’s FC said the team has started to work on new strategies to win their next match scheduled for Wednesday.
RTC Women’s FC was leading the match as their left winger Ritu Porna Chakma struck the first goal in the 27th minute of the game.
However, the Iranian champions drew level, six minutes later.
The team scored another goal in the 75th minute which sealed their win for the opening Group D match of the inaugural AFC Women’s Champions League 2024-2025.
RTC Women’s FC tried to prove their capabilities in front of 2,400 spectators who came to witness the tournament. However, the team couldn’t score any additional goals.
Nonetheless, RTC Women’s FC plans to come back stronger in the next match against Kitchee SC.
Striker Deki Lhazom said “we gave our best but the result was not what we wanted. For the next match, we will prepare well and win. The supporters helped us throughout the game.”
Captain of RTC Women’s FC, Suk Maya Ghalley said “though we had a good fight we could not win. I like to thank all the cheering leaders, all the RTC Staff, and the people of Bhutan for coming to cheer us. Their support and motivation gave us the confidence to play against them. Our next game is with Kitchee and we won’t disappoint the crowd, we will come strong and have a good team spirit again.”
Following the match, some of the spectators BBS talked to said RTC Women’s players could have won the match if they played defensively after their first goal.
According to the coach of RTC Women’s FC, they will work on their drawbacks and make the necessary corrections and improvements for the next match.
Jigme, the head coach said “we have plans to do corrections and modifications. So, it has to be a better way. On the 28th we have a match against Kitchee, Hong Kong and we will do our best, we will do more corrections from tomorrow onwards. We will come stronger and win the game.”
During the post-match press conference, Bam Khatoon FC’s head coach said RTC Women’s FC gave them a tough competition.
Marziyeh Jafaribaravati, head coach of Bam Khatoon Women’s FC said “After we received the goal between halftime we had some substitutes, and some change in the formations of the players. We added two more players and replaced the goalkeeper to build more confidence in the team. We lost control of the play, especially before the half. If we could have more concentration on the field, we could also score more goals in the match.”
The AFC Women’s Champions League is Asia’s top-tier women’s football club competition. 13 teams are divided into four different groups in the Preliminary round. The champions of the preliminary stage will be given USD 100,000 each.
Karma Wangdi
Edited by Phub Gyem
