Bangladesh defeats Nepal with Trishna’s last-minute goal in U-20 Women’s SAFF thriller

Bangladesh secured a thrilling victory in the U-20 Women's SAFF Championship, edging past Nepal 3-2 in their second match held at the Kings Arena in Dhaka.

Head coach Peter Butler made two changes to the starting lineup, bringing in Barna Khatun and Shanti Mardi. From the very beginning, the girls in red and green played aggressively and took the lead in the 13th minute. Sagarika advanced down the left wing and delivered a pass to Munki. Though her shot was blocked near the goal line, Sinha capitalized on the rebound to score—her second goal of the tournament.

Nepal responded with urgency, launching several attacks in a bid to get back into the game. However, Bangladesh's defense and goalkeeper Swarna Rani held firm throughout the first half. Then, in the 37th minute, Bangladesh doubled their lead through Sagarika, who had scored a hat-trick in the previous match.

Nepal missed a good chance in the 43rd minute, and the second half remained tense. In the 56th minute, drama unfolded as both Bangladesh’s Sagarika and Nepal’s Simran Rai were shown red cards, reducing both teams to ten players. Nepal pulled one back from a penalty in the 77th minute and leveled the score in the 86th minute with a spectacular goal.

But the drama wasn’t over yet. In stoppage time, Trishna Rani scored a brilliant goal to put Bangladesh ahead 3-2, sealing all three points in dramatic fashion.

In this four-team round-robin league, each team will play the others twice. The team with the highest points will be crowned champions. The competing teams are Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Bhutan.

In the previous edition of the tournament (U-19), Bangladesh shared the title with India. This time, playing on home turf, the Bangladesh team is determined to win the championship outright.