Dhaka: Bangladesh U19 women’s national team is ready to take on Kyrgyzstan in the last Group B match and claim all three points to go into the semis as group champions.
With UAE losing both of their matches, Bangladesh and Kyrgyzstan are guaranteed to appear in the semis this match would only reveal who the group champions will be.
Both Bangladesh and Kyrgyzstan have three points each; however, Bangladesh can go through to the semis as group champions just with a draw owing to their superior goal-difference.
However, Bangladesh captain Misrat Jahan Mousumi and her colleagues are thinking of nothing less than a draw.
Giving her opinion on the Kyrgyzstan match, Mousumi said, “Yes, we are through to the semis. But we want to beat Kyrgyzstan to go through as group champions.”
“We know Kyrgyzstan are a good side and they are at this stage by playing some quality football. However, we will go in to register a win to give ourselves a confidence boost for the semis.”
The disciples of Golam Rabbani Choton watched Wednesday’s Kyrgyzstan-UAE match to study the strengths and weaknesses of their opponents, who had a brilliant result in last October’s AFC U-19 Women’s Championship Qualifiers where they finished group runners-up with wins over UAE, Guam and Maldives and a defeat to ultimate champions Uzbekistan.
Commenting on their next rivals, towering defender Akhi Khatun said, “Kyrgyzstan are physically strong and play attacking football. We have discussed how will we play against them and we will also be trying to give our best.”
Krishna Rani Sarker, most valuable player of the previous match, said, “We are not taking Kyrgyzstan lightly. We are focused on not repeating the same mistakes we made against the UAE. We practiced for the past two days to rectify those mistakes. We will be trying to avail all the scoring opportunities against Kyrgyzstan.”
Meanwhile, Kyrgyzstan coach Gaivornoskaia Natalia said they were waiting for the Bangladesh match as they were eager to put up their best performance.
“This Bangladesh side have some really good players and the team plays with significant speed and as a team,” said Natalia.
“It is going to be an entertaining match because both sides are good,” she added.
The Kyrgyzstan-Bangladesh match will get underway at 6:00pm at the Bangabandhu National Stadium on Friday.
Fans can watch the match live on private television channels RTV and Nagorik TV or listen to live commentary on Bangladesh Betar and Radio Foorti.
