Bangladesh’s decisive Myanmar test today

Bangladesh women's football team players exuded confidence ahead of potentially the most crucial match in the team's history as they face Myanmar for a maiden berth in Women's Asian Cup today.

The women in red and green have never played in the continent's top completion, and in the two previous qualifying campaigns they had lost all five of their matches, conceding 25 goals without scoring any.

But the current Bangladesh team are a different prospect altogether as they have already thrashed 36-place higher Bahrain 7-0 in their opening group fixture.

Now they face the group's top-ranked Myanmar (55) at their own backyard in a fixture which could potentially decide the one team to progress.

The match will get underway at the Thuwunna Stadium in Yangon at 3:30pm Bangladesh time.

This will be a rematch of the 2018 meeting between the two sides in an Olympic Qualifier at the same venue where the hosts had inflicted a 5-0 defeat on a vastly inferior Bangladesh team.

That was the only time these two teams had faced at this level, but Bangladesh have grown from strength to strength in the intervening years, conquering the SAFF region twice and challenging teams beyond South Asia -- teams that are far above them in FIFA rankings.

The hosts, too, have started the campaign with a bang, handing Turkmenistan, the lowest-ranked side in the group, an 8-0 defeat.

Bangladesh coach Peter Butler knows Myanmar will be a different challenge altogether.

"I do believe Myanmar will present a completely different challenge. They're more technically gifted. They'll have a partisan crowd behind them. But we'll be ready for them," the Englishman said after Sunday's victory.

Butler's charges would definitely want to grab at least one point from this fixture, if not three, which would keep them in the race, especially given that Bangladesh would get to play the last match of the group against Turkmenistan, knowing the equation they would need to achieve to progress.

Coach Peter Butler overseeing training. Photo: BFF

The players, though, are looking to get all three points.

"We're all focused and are concentrating on the big match tomorrow. The coach will inform us about his game plan in the evening's team meeting. We hope to have a good game and come out with a victory," midfielder Sapna Rani Mondal, who had an impactful outing in the first match, said after yesterday morning's training session.

Forward Shaheda Akter Ripa said: "We are all ready for a competitive match tomorrow. Our target will be to win so that we can qualify."

While Myanmar will be favourites on paper, Bangladesh's dominant display against a physically stronger Bahrain side showed they are no pushovers.

A similar performance against Myanmar could well script another memorable chapter in Bangladesh women's football.