KATHMANDU, March 10: Nepal women football team is high on self-confidence ahead of its first match in the upcoming South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) Women’s Championship in Biratnagar on Tuesday. 

Nepal is hosting the tournament for the first time in its history. It is also the first international football tournament outside Kathmandu, the capital city, for Nepal. All the matches will be played in Shahid Stadium.

“Players are ready for the kick-off on Tuesday,” said Hari Khadka, former Nepal national football team captain and current head coach of women’s national team ahead of its first match against Bhutan. He added: “We are looking forward to making most of the home conditions.”

Last month, Nepal finished runner-up in the Hero Women’s International Gold Cup held in India, losing to Malaysia in the final. Nepal defeated higher ranked teams India and Iran during the group stage. 

“Our team is mentally and physically ready to compete with them and this time the home support of Province 1 will be on our side,” said Khadka during a practice session in Biratnagar. “Our focus is solely on getting enough points to reach the semifinal. We are working on different strategies for different teams.”

National team captain Niru Thapa was pumped to represent Nepal at the SAFF, forgetting previous disappointments and looking forward to rewriting the history with successful performance in this edition. 

She said that the hard-work the team had put in preparation for the SAFF was bound to bring good results in the tournament.

Nepal had defeated India 2-1 during its last encounter in Hero Cup. Similarly, Nepal has not lost against Bangladesh and Bhutan in the last five games. Nepal has never won SAFF having been runner-up three times in first three editions of the tournament since its inauguration. Defending champions India has won all four times and Bangladesh had finished runner-up once.

The provincial chief of police Manoj Kumar KC assured All Nepal Football Association (ANFA) of adequate, and additional if needed, security to make sure the high-profile tournament was conducted in a smooth manner. 

“We don’t want security to be an issue for an international tournament, which is set to lift the status of Biratnagar and the surrounding areas. We understand it is a matter of prestige for our country,” said KC. “We have made special security arrangements for travel and accommodations of all the teams. We have even engaged the traffic police and other security agencies to help us throughout the tournament.”

The fifth edition of SAFF Women’s Championship is a biennial international women’s football championship contested by the national teams of SAFF. Initially scheduled to be held in Sri Lanka on December 17-26, 2018, the competition was rescheduled to be held in Nepal on March 12–22 this year after Sri Lanka withdrew as the host.

Defending champion India and Bangladesh were pitted in group B and group A respectively. In Group A, Nepal, who finished second in the first three editions of the tournament were drawn with 2016 runners-up Bangladesh, Bhutan and Pakistan. In Group B, Maldives and Sri Lanka are placed along with India. Afghanistan will not be playing in SAFF championships from this edition though they played in the 2016 edition even after changing their sub-confederation from SAFF to CAFF in 2014.
 

 
• nepal_women_football_team
 
• SAFF_women's_championship
 
• football