Wednesday, March 29, 2023
Bangladesh Under-20 National Women’s Team thrashed Turkmenistan 4-0 to get off to a great start in their AFC Women’s U20 Asian Cup Qualifiers in Dhaka on Friday.
Sapna Rani and Most Aklima Khatun scored two goals each as the Bangladesh side dominated the proceedings at the Shaheed Sipahi Mostofa Kamal Stadium.
Bangladesh will now face Iran, who thrashed Turkmenistan 7-1 in the other game, in the final match of this stage on March 12, where a win will guarantee them proceeding to the second round of qualification, where they will be joined by seven other teams.
From the first minute of the match, Bangladesh were on the front foot, launching one attack after another into the Turkmenistan box. A goal or a clear chance, however, remained away.
The deadlock was broken in the first minute of stoppage time when a corner created chaos in the Turkmenistan box, and Aklima pounced to hand Bangladesh the lead.
That goal made it easy for Bangladesh as they played the second half much calmer and found three goals.
The first came in the 71st minute when Eity Khatun produced a superb cross from the right wing, to which Aklima provided a deft touch to put the ball in the net.
Eity was again in on the action 10 minutes later as she put in another great cross from the same side, which Sapna coolly finished to make it 3-0.
Bangladesh scored again almost from the kick-off as a quick turnover of possession saw Sapna trying to cross from the edge of the box, which neither the Turkmenistan defenders nor the goalkeeper managed to deal with, leading to the ball ending in the net.
