Dhaka: Bangladesh U19 women’s national team captain Misrat Jahan Mousumi has declared that winning the semifinal match against Mongolia and making it to the final of Bangamata U19 Women’s International Gold Cup 2019 is all the team is thinking about right now.
Sharing her thoughts on the semifinal against Mongolia, Mousumi said, “We obviously want to beat Mongolia in order to go to the final. That’s our main target right now.”
Asked whether the team has been taking any special preparation for the Mongolia match, the skipper said, “Well, Mongolia will obviously be a new opponent for us as we have not faced them yet. But they won’t be completely unknown to us. Our head and the staff has observed their matches and we’ve been given some ideas about them. We’ve also seen their match videos. However, there hasn’t been any exclusive training focusing on the Mongolia match. We’ve just been doing our regular training.”
Asked whether the team will miss two experienced forwards who are out injured, Mousumi said, “Shopna and Krishna are two very important players. And it’s sad that we won’t get their service in the Mongolia match. However, the players who’ll fill their places are also experienced. And they’ll give it their all to help win. You won’t notice any difference in the team’s performance as all the players are good and they are in the team by proving their ability.”
Head coach Golam Rabbani Choton also reiterated that all the other players are fit and are prepared to fill Shopna and Krishna’s shoes.
Bangladesh will square-off against Mongolia in the second semifinal of the Bangamata U19 Women’s International Gold Cup 2019 at Bangabandhu National Stadium, Dhaka at 6:00pm on Tuesday, April 30.
Laos have already reached the final beating Kyrgyzstan 7-1 in the first semifinal on Monday.
