Bangladesh retained the title of the SAFF Under-19 Women’s Football Championship when they beat India by a solitary goal in the five-nation tournament final at the Bir Shrestha Shaheed Sepahi Mohammad Mostafa Kamal Stadium in Kamalapur on Wednesday.

Anai Mogini scored the all-important winner in the 80th minute when the defender floated in a cross from the right flank that found its way in the back of the net after India’s goalkeeper Anshika misjudged the flight of the ball and nudged it into her own goal.

The margin of victory doesn’t do justice to the dominance shown by the Bangladesh team throughout the 90 minutes, where they came close to scoring multiple times but couldn’t breach the Indian goal-line.

Bangladesh nearly got the lead in the 15th minute but Indian keeper Anshika grabbed the ball on the goal-line to save her post.

The Indians were lucky again in the 25th minute as Anai’s corner from the right side rebounded from the far post before Anshika got hold of it.

Bangladesh played a pressing game from the beginning and forced the Indian team to play with a defensive approach.

Akhi Khatun and Shamsunnahar (senior) were marshalling  Bangladesh’s defence while captain Maria Manda, Monika Chakma and Shahada Akter Ripa were providing passes to upfront where Tohura Khatun and Shamsunnahar (junior) trying to score a goal.

Indian forwards Lynda Kom Serto and Maisha Baxla mostly spent time in the midfield and were searching for opportunities to counter-attack but could hardly test Bangladesh keeper Rupna Chakma.

Shamsunnahar (junior) was unlucky in the beginning of the second half as her volley from the box in the 46th minute got rebounded from the top-left corner of the post and was cleared by an Indian defender with a header.

India threatened Bangladesh’s defence a couple of times after the 50th minute but Akhi and Shamsunnahar (Senior) stood tall to deny them.

Rupna saved her post once again in the 64th minute as she denied Lynda Kom’s header off Priyangka Devi’s cross from the right side.

The missed opportunities didn’t haunt Bangladesh in the end as Anai’s long range strike won her side the trophy.

Bangladesh dominated throughout the tournament as they scored 20 goals without conceding a single one in five matches while India conceded two goals, both against Bangladesh, who earlier also won by one goal in the group stage.

Bangladesh’s 23-member team is comprised of nine players from Chakma, Marma, Garo and Santal ethnicities and five of them – goalkeeper Rupna Chakma, defender Anai Mogini, midfielders Maria Manda (captain), Monika Chakma, Ritu Porna Chakma– played in the final against India.

The other four players are: defender Kohati Kisku, midfielder Shohagi Kisku, forwards Anuching Mogini and Shopna Rani.