BKSP, Dhaka fight for title today

The curtain on the Walton U-18 National Football Championship falls today at the Bangabandhu National Stadium with favourites BKSP fighting against Dhaka for the title.

With the youth football tournament being held for the first time since 2007, the group stages hardly unearthed many promising footballers. But the final round was entertaining as the eight teams showed their true potential and footballers like Fahim and Rakib of BKSP, Bokkor of Sylhet and Shahriar of Dhaka showed their brilliance.

The two best teams are now in the final after BKSP beat Sylhet 4-3 in shootout in one semifinal and Dhaka edged past Chittagong 2-0 in the other semifinal. These two sides interestingly met in the group stages where BKSP had inflicted a 4-2 defeat on 2007 edition's champions Dhaka.

BKSP are tipped favourites to clinch the title even though they started the final round with a 1-1 draw against Rangpur before coming back strongly to beat Dhaka and Rajshahi 5-2 and finally crossing the hurdle of Sylhet in semifinals.

Dhaka, who confirmed their semifinal berth with two wins and a loss, finishing second behind BKSP in the group, were however brilliant in the semifinal against Chittagong and they will be looking forward to displaying another brilliant performance today.

“BKSP are favourites as they train round-the-year but we will surely not let go without a fight and we will battle till the last minute to win the title,” Dhaka coach Abul Hossain said at a pre-match press conference yesterday.

“I have seen the matches of Dhaka, who are a strong side, and it is going to be a tough match. I believe if my boys can play their normal game, we can win the title” hoped BKSP coach Poritosh Dewan.