Dhaka – Bangladesh team took a full-day rest on Tuesday ahead of the first semifinal of the six-nation SAFF U-15 Championship against neighbouring India on Friday (November 1) 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.
Bangladesh team had a stretching session after breakfast and visited the National Botanical Garden of Nepal as part of recreation before lunch on Tuesday.
However, the team will go back to a full-fledged training on Wednesday before taking strong India in the semifinal.
Considering the ability of opponent India, the coaching staff and the players are preparing to give their best to make a final berth.
Earlier, 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 last Thursday
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 semis, 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
