BSS, Dhaka:
Bangladesh National Women’s Football team, led by Afeida Khandaker, to depart here for Myanmar early today at 2.45 am to take part in the AFC Women’s Asian Cup Australia 2026 (qualifiers) scheduled to be held from June 29 to July 5 in Myanmar’s Yangon city, formerly known as Rangoon.
Bangladesh, which pitted in group C along with Bahrain, Turkmenistan and host Myanmar, will start their tournament campaign taking on Bahrain on June 29. The girls in red and green will play their remaining group matches against host Myanmar and Turkmenistan on July 2 and July 5 respectively.
All the matches will be held at Thuwunna Stadium in Yangon.
Addressing a pre-departure press conference held at the Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) conference room on Tuesday, Afeida Khandaker said: “We don’t have much time for preparation after coming from Jordan …Our target will be to qualify in the final… All three matches are equally very important for us… Our opponents Bahrain, Myanmar and Turkmenistan are very strong sides… We’ll try to win match by match against them and hope we’ll return home after fulfilling our target.”
Replying to a question, the Bangladesh team captain said the experience of playing against Jordan and Indonesia would enable them to make a good performance in the upcoming Asian Cup in Myanmar.
Team head coach Peter James Butler said he is confident and optimistic for the result in Myanmar.
The head coach said all through the girls are going to play physically superior and tactically improved sides in the tournament but he is very much confident and optimistic with the team and looking for a result.
BFF and AFC member and BFF women’s winning Chairman Mahfuza Akter Kiron said, “In terms of ranking host Myanmar (55th) has long been ahead of us, not only in ranking, Myanmar also played five times in AFC Asian Cup. Bahrain was also better than us (92nd) and they played two times in the qualifiers.”
