Kathmandu: Bangladesh U15 national team players are keeping their feet on the ground despite a thumping 9-0 victory over Maldives in their first match of the SAFF U15 Championship 2018.
Following the win on Saturday, head coach Mostofa Anowar Parvej said that his boys stuck to the game plan and was able to carve out a huge win.
“However, let’s not get too complacent. We still have to face Nepal even though we’ve already qualified for the semis. We want to qualify as group champions,” said Parvej Babu.
“Nepal are a strong team. We know their strengths. We’ll also try to give our best to defeat them,” the head coach concluded.
Skipper Mahedi Hasan is also controlling his emotions. “Yes, we are happy with the big win. But we want to be the group champions. And for that, we have to keep working hard.”
Star forward Nihat Jaman Uccash, who scored 4 out of Bangladesh’s 9 goals, want to keep his scoring form going. “I’m really happy to score a hattrick in my first international match and help my team to win. I want to keep scoring and hopefully score another hattrick in the next match.”
The team had practice sessions on Sunday to prepare for the Nepal game scheduled to kick-off at the ANFA Complex ground at 2:45pm (BDST) on Monday, October 29.
Bangladesh currently top group A with 3 points from 1 game with a +9 goal difference while Nepal are second despite having 3 points from 1 game also due to an inferior goal difference of +4.
On the other hand, Maldives are already out of the competition failing register any win from the two matches they played in which they scored a total of 13 goals.
This also means that Bangladesh and Nepal are through to the semi-finals with one match in hand.
The final Group A game between Bangladesh and hosts Nepal will determine who will be the group champions and who will be the runners-up.
