Lahore, 18 December: Nepal brush aside Pakistan with a resounding 12-0 score in their third Group-B match of first SAFF Women Football Championship at Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh on Saturday, 18 December afternoon. The semi-finals finals line up is : Pakistan v India (20 December) and Bangladesh v Nepal (21 December). Both the semi-finals will be kicked off at 12.30 PM. The final is scheduled for 23 December at same time.
In 12-0 victory of Nepal, front runner Anu Lama, who fired hat-tricks against Maldives on 12 December and Afghanistan on 14 December, landed the opener in the 15th minute. It was eighth goal for Anu in the event who slammed hat-trick when the two sides met in the 11th South Asian Games, with Nepal winning 7-0 against Ishrat Fatima-led Pakistan on 6 February 2010.
Nepali formation was back four Bhagawati Thapa, Chandra Bhandari, Tulsa Singh, Niru Thapa with Namita Dali in net. Sajana Rana, Laxmi Poudel, Mira Maharjan, Pramila Rai occupied midfield behind strikers Anu Lama and captain Jamuna Gurung. Mira Maharjan doubled the lead in the 21st minute by whipping the ball past keeper from 30-metre free-kick. Laxmi Poudel made it 3-0 when she accelerated onto Chandra Bhandari’s pass to do the rest. Nepal led 3-0 at interval.
Nepal enhanced the lead to 7-0 with four goals in six minutes through Jamuna Gurung (50 min), Pramila Rai (52 min), Sajana Rana (53 min) and Anu Lama (56 min). Anu completed her third hat-trick in as many matches in the 69 min to make it 8-0. Four more goals gave Nepalese grand victory. Poudel scored again in the 77th minute while Rajana Darji made it 10-0 in the 82nd minute. Gurung also registered hat-trick with goals in the 87th, 88th minute.
Earlier, title aspirants India assured of a place in the semifinals, thrashing Bangladesh 6-0 to top the group and set up a last-four clash against Pakistan, Kamala Devi led the goal rush with a hat-trick, Sasmita Malik found the net twice while Tababi Devi struck once for India.
Kamala opened the scoring as early as in the seventh minute of the match and added two more, in the 18th and 26th minute. In between Malik struck once in the 23rd minute, before adding another to her name two minutes before half time.
Tababi found the target in the 39th minute. Despite their total domination, India, interestingly, scored all their goals in the first half. Their inability to find the net after change of ends, however, didn’t matter in the end.
India had started the campaign with a 18-0 thrashing of Bhutan and continued their rampaging form in the next match against Sri Lanka, scripting a 7-0 win over the islanders.
There will be no match on Sunday.