With the hat-trick of Savitra Bhandari (Samba), the captain of the national women's football team, Nepal defeated Sri Lanka in the AFC Women's Asian Cup qualifiers and won the second consecutive victory in the competition.
In the match held on Wednesday at Milli Stadium in Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan, Nepal won the tournament with a wide margin of 8-0 against Sri Lanka. With this win, Nepal has collected 6 points in two games. In the first match, Nepal defeated Laos by 9-0.
In Nepal's victory, Samba completed a hat trick, Geeta Rana scored two goals and Nisha Thokar, Rekha Paudel and Pooja Rana each scored 1/1 goal. Nepal took the first lead in the seventh minute of the game. Anita Basnet's corner was scored by Geeta.
Then in the 20th minute of the game, Nepal doubled its lead. Samba scored for Nepal. In the 36th minute of the game, captain Samba scored directly on a free-kick. But the referee did not give the goal. Then, in the 42nd minute of the game, Samba scored her second personal goal. In the extra time of the first half of the game, Samba added 1 goal and completed the hat trick.
In the 53rd minute of the game, Sri Lanka's Sachina de Silva tackled Nepal's Rashmikumari Ghising, and the referee gave Nepal a penalty. In which Geeta scored a penalty. Nisha scored a header in the 62nd minute of the game. In the 78th minute of the game, another substitute forward Rekha scored a goal from substitute player Pooja Rana's cross.
After that, with Pooja adding a goal in the 89th minute of the game, Nepal won 8-0 over Sri Lanka. Now Nepal will play against home team Uzbekistan in the last group stage on Saturday. This is Sri Lanka's second defeat in a row. In the first match, the home team of Sri Lanka was defeated by Uzbekistan by 10-0.
