Dhaka – Bangladesh will play their giant neighbour India in the first semifinal of the six-nation SAFF U-15 Championship on Thursday morning at ANFA Complex in Lalitpur, Nepal.
The match will kick off at 10:45 am (Bangladesh Time).Group A champions Pakistan will play group B runners-up and hosts Nepal in the 2nd semifinal at 2:45 pm, also on Thursday at the same venue. The final match will be held on Saturday (November 3) at 2:45 pm at the same venue.
Ahead of the semifinal against India, Mostafa Babu’s boys made hard practices at the ANFA Complex on Wednesday and they are eager to reach the final beating India in the semifinal.
Ahead of the match, Bangladesh Coach Mostofa Parvez Babu said, “Our first target to reach the semifinal was achieved. Now, we want to play the final beating India, although we have all respects for the Indian team.”
Bangladesh emerged Group A champions with all-win record to reach the semifinals beating hosts Nepal by 2-1 goals in the last group match after crushing the Maldives by 9-0 goals in the first match, featuring a hat-trick by Nihad Jaman while Nepal outplayed the Maldives 4-0 in their first appearance on Thursday last.
After the group stages, Bangladesh (Group A) and Pakistan (Group B) clinched the group crown with all-win run to qualify for the semifinals securing full six points from straight two encounters while Nepal (Group A) and India (Group B) finished group runners-up to reach the semifinals, collecting three points from two matches.
On the other hand, Pakistan clinched Group B title beating India by 2-1 goals and Bhutan by 4-0 goals while India finished Group B runners-up beating Bhutan by 4-0 goals.On completion of the group matches, Nihad Jaman of Bangladesh dominated the scorer list making four goals.UNB
