By a Staff Reporter
Nepal National U20 Women’s Team advanced to the second round of AFC U20 Women’s Asian Cup Qualifiers scoring half a dozen goals past the Northern Mariana Islands at Faisal Al-Husseini Stadium on Sunday.
Dipa Shahi and Sara Bajracharya each scored a brace, while Saraswati Hamal and Jenifar Rana scored a goal apiece in Nepal’s dominant victory.
Dipa opened the scoring in the fourth minute. Sara doubled Nepal’s lead just two minutes later. Dipa then scored her second goal and Nepal’s third in the 19th minute, while Saraswati extended Nepal’s lead to 4-0 in the 30th minute.
With Sara netting her second and Nepal’s fifth goal in the 45th minute, Nepal went into the break with a comfortable five-goal lead.
Jenifer Rana added a goal further in the second half. Jenifer found the back of the net in the second minute of injury time.
With two consecutive victories, Nepal earned six points and finished as Group B winners, qualifying for the second round. Earlier, Nepal defeated Palestine 6-0. The United Arab Emirates (UAE), who were scheduled to compete in Group B, withdrew from the tournament at the last minute.
The winning teams from the eight groups in the first stage will advance to the second stage, where they will be divided into two groups of four teams each. The top four teams will then qualify for the AFC U-20 Women’s Asian Cup in Uzbekistan, which will take place from March 3 to 16, 2024. Japan, North Korea, and South Korea have already been selected, along with host nation Uzbekistan, as participants in the tournament.
