U-17 girls waiting to prove as they leave for AFC qualifiers in Singapore

The players like Ruma Akter, Souravi Akanda Prity, Trishna Rani, Joynab Bibi, Kanon Rani, Sanggita Rani, Puja Das and  Nusrat Jahan Ritu may not be the familiars yet like Sabina Khatun, Maria Manda, Krishna Rani, Monika Chakma, Ritu Porna Chakma, Sirat Jahan Swapna but the budding footballers are waiting to prove them in upcoming the AFC U-17 Women's Asia Cup Qualifiers, starting from April 26 in Singapore.

The budding players, who are scheduled to leave for Singapore tonight to take part in the first round of the Qualifiers, had recent past gathered some valuable experience playing last November's SAFF U-15 Women's Championship and this year's SAFF U-17 women's Championship and the girls are much excited to play their maiden overseas tournament, a platform from where the country's women's football came to the limelight back in 2015.

The AFC U-17 women's Asia Cup had before been a U-16 meet and Bangladesh qualified for the final round two successive times in 2017 and 2019 before the championship remained halted for nearly three-and-a-half year following the coronavirus pandemic.

The charges of Golam Rabbani Choton might not shine as their successors at international tournaments but they showed the glimpse of improvement playing against the sub-continent opponents as well as Russia and the girls are eagerly waiting to transfer their improved perfrom in Group D fixtures against debutant Turkmenistan and hosts Singapore.

"Our target is to win both matches to emerge group Champions and progress to the round-2 of the qualification," head coach Golam Rabbani Choton told The Daily Star on the eve of their departure. "The girls are really excited for going abroad and palying the tournament for the first time away from home. They are also eager to perform on foreign soil."

The challenge from hosts Singapore and Turkmenistan are expected to overcome but Choton is well aware of the development of women's football across the Asia.

"As we played the finals of U-16 Women's Championship twice in a row, we are definitely favourite in Group D but the thing is that every nation has been working on women's football, so every nation has significantly  progressed. I think Singapore may also develop than their 0-5 drubbing at the hands of Bangladesh in the qualification round when we first qualified for the finals,"  said Choton.

The women in red and green have been together for a couple of years to play the SAFF U-15 Women's Championship last year and recently played SAFF U-17 Women's Championship that gave the girls opportunity to understand each other while the coaching staff has definitely worked on rectifying the mistakes the girls had in their last two tournaments.

The girls had a pleasant Eid day on Saturday amid the festive environment in the training camp where they also had training and gym session before enjoying the eid away from their nears and dears who were allowed to talk the players over the phone.

"They spent a joyous day on Saturday away from home but they have been incited in the camp. So we are hoping the girls carry their stimulation of the camp to the playing ground as well as showing their continuous improvement," said Choton.

Meanwhile, the eight group winners will advance to the AFC U17 Women's Asian Cup Qualifiers Round 2, scheduled for September 16 to 24. They will be divided into two groups and the top two teams from each will join the three highest seeded sides from the AFC U-16 Women's Championship Thailand 2019 – defending champions Japan, DPR Korea, and China PR – and hosts Indonesia in the Finals, set for April 7 to 20, 2024.