Bangladesh women’s football team made history by defeating their Indian counterparts for the first time ever to progress to the semifinal of the SAFF Women’s Championship as Group A champions at the Dasarath Stadium in Kathmandu, Nepal on Tuesday.
Sirat Jahan scored a brace while Krishna Rani Sarkar scored once as Bangladesh thrashed India 3-0 in both team’s final group-stage match.
Bangladesh and India had earlier faced off 10 times in women’s international football. India won nine of those games while Bangladesh managed to avoid defeat only once in a goalless draw in the 2016 SAFF Women’s Championship.
Bangladesh went 2-0 up in the first half with Sirat opening the scoring in the 12th minute. Krishna joined her in the score sheet 10 minutes later.
The Indians were desperate to come back into the contest in the second half. But it was Bangladesh who scored just eight minutes into the half, with Sirat completing her brace.
Bangladesh earlier defeated the Maldives 3-0 and blew away Pakistan 6-0 in their other group-stage matches.
Bangladesh are now set to face Bhutan in the semifinal on 16 September.