AFC U-16 Women’s Qualifiers: Bangladesh to play Philippines in opener Wednesday

Dhaka – Bangladesh U-16 Women’s Football team will start their campaign of the Qualifying Round-2 of the AFC U-16 Women’s Championships taking on the Philippines in the first match at the Mandalar Thiri Stadium in Mandalay, Myanmar on Wednesday eying to reach the final round.

The match will kick off at 2:30 pm Bangladesh time which will be telecast live by Myanmar Television while Radio Myanmar will broadcast the running commentary.

Bangladesh, which have been placed in Group B of the AFC U-16 Women’s meet with China, the Philippines and hosts Myanmar, will play hosts Myanmar on March 1 and China on March 3 in their remaining group matches, all at the Mandalar Thiri Stadium.

Ahead of the Wednesday’s opener, Bangladesh U-16 players enjoyed a light stretching session at the fitness suite of the team hotel while Bangladesh senior national women’s team also made practices at Myanmar’s Academy regional facility centre in Mandalay on Tuesday.

Addressing a pre-match press conference on Tuesday afternoon, all the four participating teams — Bangladesh, China, Myanmar and the Philippines — demonstrated their strengths and target, saying they are excitingly looking forward to the first game to be played on Wednesday, said a BFF media release on Tuesday.  Bangladesh Head Coach Golam Rabbai Choton said the Bangladesh players are exited being able to play against quality teams in the competition. “We have been working very hard since Round-1 of the competition in Dhaka. We are ready to compete and to make Bangladesh proud,” Choton added. 
All the teams are very good and competitive in this Competition Round-2because all teams are qualified in this round as champion teamfrom respective group of round-1, he said. “We came here to win and qualify for the final round.”

BangladeshCaptain Maria Manda said, “We came to Myanmar to qualify for the final round in Thailand. Tomorrow (Wednesday) is our first match against the Philippines. We want to win thematch and earn full points, although the Philippines are a good team.”UNB