Bangladesh's Saurabhi Preeti scored a hat-trick against Nepal in the ongoing tournament in Thimphu.
What you should know
After consecutive poor performances, Nepal's chances of winning the SAFF U-17 Women's Championship ended on Wednesday. In the first match of the second leg at Changlimithang Stadium in Thimphu, Bhutan, the Nepali team lost 4-1 to Bangladesh.
Earlier in the first leg as well, Nepal lost 3-0 to Bangladesh. Bangladesh finished second in the group with 9 points after their third win. Nepal has only 3 points after 4 games. Nepal has been defeated in three matches. After this defeat, Nepal's title challenge is over.
Souravhi Preeti scored a hat-trick in Bangladesh's victory. Souravhi took the lead in the 38th minute with Thunuy Marma's goal. Then Shourbhi scored in the 44th, 71st and 86th minutes. The only possible goal from Nepal was in the name of captain Bhumika Budhathoki. She scored in injury time of the first half.
Total 4 teams are participating in this competition. The team is playing on a double round robin basis. India is at the top with 12 points from 4 games. India beat hosts Bhutan 5-0 in the second match of the day. Regardless of the result of the remaining matches of the tournament, Nepal will not be able to overtake India.
Bhutan remained at the bottom with no points after losing for the fourth time in a row. Now only India and Bangladesh are left to compete for the title and the match between these two will decide the champion team.
Chetnarayan Shrestha, the coach of the Nepali team, claimed that despite the defeat, the Nepali team has improved. He said, "On Wednesday, our players played better than before." It was a must-win game, but we couldn't take advantage of the opportunities we had. That's why we were defeated. But nothing, we will improve the performance of the team and move forward. The Bangladeshi players looked better in comparison.'
'We will try to improve whatever weaknesses we have in the next match,' coach Shrestha added, 'We did not think of getting out of the title equation after four matches. But we lost three out of four games. In this two matches were with Bangladesh. Now we have two games left, we will try to do well. The team will play as well as possible.'
