Six years ago, in a Tri-nation Cup in Singapore, a young Bangladesh women’s football team was defeated 3-0 by their Singaporean counterparts. Those girls, on the other hand, have evolved to the point where they are confident of defeating the Singaporeans in two FIFA friendly matches in Dhaka.
The Singapore squad, which was due to arrive in Dhaka in the early hours of Thursday, will play two matches against their hosts on December 1 and 4 at the Birshreshtha Shaheed Mostafa Kamal Stadium.
Bangladesh’s under-16 women’s squad played Singapore with only three senior players in February 2017 as part of their preparation for the finals of the AFC U-16 Women’s Championship in Thailand. The team was defeated 3-0, with goals scored in the ninth, 39th, and 48th minutes, respectively.
Six years later, players like Maria Manda, Monika Chakma, Sanjida Khatun, Shamsunnahar Sr, Krishna Rani Sarker, and others have matured and won the SAFF Women’s Championship by defeating India and Nepal. They are also considerably more experienced now, having competed in this year’s Asian Games alongside previous world winners Japan and Asian powerhouse Vietnam.
With that expertise, the women in red and green are optimistic of defeating Singapore, which is rated 130th in the world, 12 places ahead of Bangladesh.
“We are a much more balanced side now than we were in 2017 because we have improved a lot technically, tactically, and physically,” skipper Sabina stated Wednesday during a news conference.
“We hope that spectators will come out to watch two challenging matches in which we hope to entertain them and continue the trend of women’s football that we have established.” Obviously, we want to win both games.”
Vice-captain Maria Manda echoed Sabina’s sentiments, saying, “We are getting the opportunity to play friendly matches again, and we will be trying to give our level best to win both matches.”
Head coach Saiful Bari Titu, on the other hand, wants to concentrate on the first of two matches versus Singapore.
“The team was in good shape after the Asian Games, and we’re trying to keep it that way.” “Right now, we’re looking forward to going match by match because Singapore is a new opponent for us,” Titu remarked.