The Bangladesh national women’s football team will begin its campaign in the AFC Under-16 Women’s Championship at 7pm (local time) today (Sunday), taking on the hosts Thailand at the Chonburi Stadium in that country.

The eight-nation AFC age group (under-16) women’s competition is also the qualifier for the FIFA Under-17 World Cup 2020. It will kick off today (Sunday), with Japan facing Australia in the opening match at the same venue at 4pm (local time).    

Bangladesh were drawn in Group A along with the Asian giant Japan, who have won the 2014 FIFA Undet-17 Women’s World Cup and are three-time finalists, and have also played all the previous final rounds. Apart from Japan, another heavyweight in the continent’s women’s football—Australia—and, of course, hosts Thailand—are in Group A.

Bangladesh qualified in the final round as the runners-up in the second round of the qualification that was held in Myanmar.

They were the champions on their home ground in the preliminary round.

The Bangladesh women’s team left Dhaka on September 5 for Thailand, 10 days earlier, to start the competition. They had a good conditioning camp in Thailand and played three preparatory matches and won two but drew one.

It is the successive second time that Bangladesh’s under-16 women’s team qualified for the top stage of the AFC age-group competition.

Bangladesh, on their road to Thailand in the qualification round, had very convincing results, winning six matches out of seven. Their only defeat was against the highly-rated China.

Having served for a long time as the head coach of the Bangladesh national women’s team, Golam Rabbani Choton was happy with the practice matches. He said he wants a competitive match against Thailand.

In a pre-match conference yesterday (Saturday) in Chonburi, Golam Rabbani said his team came here (Thailand) in the final round after crossing the qualification rounds. The first round was in home and the second in Myanmar.

“We all know that the final round is very tough, all top Asian sides participate in this stage. We moved into the second round after being champions in the preliminary round and the second phase in Myanmar was also a very tough challenge. We became runners-up, playing very well to qualify for the final round.”

“After the second round, we had six months to prepare the team. The girls worked hard and we came here, to Thailand, on September 5. They grew accustomed to the local conditions well, where we played three practice matches, and won two and drew one.”

“Tomorrow we’ll face the hosts Thailand. They’ll enjoy all the home advantages, such as crowds and conditions, all these will be in their favour. But we, too, have experience playing against the hosts abroad, and I hope the girls won’t get nervous and will play good football,” said Golam Rabbani.

Maria Manda, captain of the team, also spoke at the press meet, where she said, “It’s our second time in the final round. We’ve been working hard for this stage. We’ve played three practice matches here. We’ve had good practice sessions here, and we’ll try to play well tomorrow.”