Defending champions Bangladesh will play five times champions India to decide their semifinal fate in the seven-nation South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) Women’s Championship’ 2024 on Wednesday .
The vital last Group A match between two sub-continental neighbour will kick-off at 5:45 pm Bangladesh time at the Dashrath Rangasala (Stadium) in the Nepalese capital Kathmandu.
Ahead of the Wednesday’s vital match, Bangladesh National Women’s team made their final training session on Tuesday from 1:45 to 3: pm at the Army Headquarters Ground in Kathmandu.
During the day’s training session, Bangladeshi player Kohati Kisku said, “We will play for win tomorrow (against India), we will try to do something better as the match will decide our semifinal fate.”
Earlier, India assured the semifinal berth from Group A with three points from one match outplaying their arch-rival Pakistan by 5-2 goal in the tournament opener.
Bangladesh, the SAFF Women’s champions of 2022, is in awkward situation this time after playing an unexpected 1-1 draw with Pakistan in their first match last Sunday.
Bangladesh beat Pakistan in all the previous occasions featuring 6-0 victory over them in last edition of the meet.
When the Sunday’s match was almost heading for Pakistan win at the coffin of holders Bangladesh, Shamsunnahar Jr rescued Bangladesh from debacle scoring the match equalizer in the first minute of added time (90+1 minute (1-1).
Despite of this draw in the first group match, Bangladesh is in upper hand in the semifinal race as they needed just a draw in their remaining group match against five times champions India on Wednesday (October 23.)
Bangladesh also have a chance to the reach the semi-final if they conceded defeat by 0-2 goal margin against India in the last group match.
On other hand, Pakistan went down in the semi-final race as they suffered 2-5 goals defeat against traditional rivals India in the tournament opener and now waiting for Bangladesh’s huge defeat against India.
But, if Sabina Khatun’s Bangladesh team lose the match against India, they would end up with same number of point as Pakistan and then goal difference between the teams shall decide who will advance to the semis.
According to tournament regulations (20.2 B4), if the points are same, then the superior goal difference in all the group matches shall determine the rankings.
In that case, if Bangladesh loses by 0-1 or 0-2 goal or any other margin equal or less than two-goal difference, then they can finish above Pakistan to reach the semi-finals.
But if Bangladesh lose by three-goal difference, the tournament regulations 20.2 B5 would come into effect which is “greater number of goals scored in all the group matches” to determine the standings.
Earlier, Bangladesh was placed in three-team Group A of the regional soccer meet with India and Pakistan while the four-team Group B consists of Sri Lanka, Maldives, Bhutan and the hosts Nepal.
After the latest group matches, India dominated the Group A securing full three points while Bangladesh and Pakistan remained at 2nd slot with one point each playing one and two matches respectively.
On other hand, Nepal and Bhutan dominated Group B with unbeaten run securing four points each while Sri Lanka followed the leaders collecting three points, all playing two matches each.
The Maldives remained at bottom in Group B without any point, also playing two matches.
