Nepal girls win second straight match

From Our Correspondent

SHILLONG, Feb 7: Nepal continued their resurgence, beating the Maldives 2-0 in their 12th South Asian Games (SAG) women’s football competition match at the Jawaharlal Nehru Sports Stadium here on Sunday.  Anu Lama and Niru Thapa scored their second respective goals of the tourment.

An early lead was in the offing for Nepal with a scoring chance that was however, not converted.

Nepal attacked progressively and maintained the bulk of possession early on against an improved Maldives side. Sabitra Bhandari came up with a crackling shot for Nepal in the 30th minute but her attempt was brilliantly saved by Maldives’ custodian Aishath Abdul Razzaq.

Nepal’s lead filly came in the 36th minute with Sabitra once again in action, feeding a calculated ball to Anu Lama for her second goal of the tourment. The forward line moved up the pitch following a counter attack as Nepal’s skipper tapped in an easy goal from the pass.

Maldives’ first corner in the 44th minute resulted in a scramble inside the box that saw them come close to scoring at at least three times before the ball was cleared. At the break, Nepal maintained a rrow yet convincing goal lead.

A minute into the second half, another scorcher by Anu Lama flew just over the bar. After an impressive show against India in their last match, Maldives once again defended well but the pressure on them appeared too much to handle. In the 61st minute, Sabitra Bhandari produced an acrobatic bicycle kick that barely missed the target. The decisive goal came in the 89th minute when Niru Thapa scored following a lapse in the Maldivian defence, resulting in a comfortable 2-0 win.

At the post match conference, Nepal’s coach Dhruba Bahadur expressed his satisfaction over the result claiming that they are confident of winning against India and travelling home with the gold medal. Maldives gaffer oko Kawamoto said that she was not disappointed with the result as she believes her team has improved over the last game against India. Kawamoto added that since the tough matches against India and Nepal are over, her side will be looking towards a more aggressive approach against Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in their upcoming matches.