Women's SAFF Cup: India face Nepal in finals

The final of the first-ever Women's SAFF Cup (South Asian Football Federation Championships) will be played tomorrow at Cox's Bazar Stadium in Bangladesh with tournaments favourites India facing neighbours Nepal. The match will kick-off at 13.30 local time (13.00 IST).

Once more the Indian women's national team will depend on a strong performance from midfielder Sasmita Mallick besides the strikers Ng. Bala Devi, T. Tababi Devi and Pinky Bompal Magar, who all have been scoring goals at will against opponents who lack the international exposure of our Indian team. But Nepal has been the other expection in this tournament, so maybe it could be a close encounter though India go into this final as the big title favourites.

The Indian Women's national team has had a great run through the tournament so far. In the group stage India had walked through Group A with an opening 18-0 hammering of minnows Bhutan, then a 7-0 trashing of Sri Lanka and in the final group game a 6-0 win against hosts Bangladesh. And then an 8-0 followed against archrivals Pakistan in the semifinals. This means our Indian women have so far scored 39 goals and conceded none in their four games, a really impressive performance.

But the Nepali Women's road to the finals has also been quite impressive. They easily won Group B with an all-win record. It started with a 6-0 win against the Maldives, a crushing 13-0 win against Afghanistan followed, before they demolished Pakistan in a 12-0 victory. In the semifinals they then beat the hosts Bangladesh 3-0. It means they have scored 34 goals, while conceding none. And statistically are only five goals worse then India.