Pakistan face India in saff women soccer clash today

LAHORE - Second-ever Pakistan India soccer rivalry will go down into women football sheets when the first semi-final of the first SAFF Women Football Championship will be played at the Coxs Bazar, Bangladesh today (Monday) at 12:30 pm. Other last four-stage tie will be held between Bangladesh and Nepal on Tuesday at the same venue and at the same time. The final will be played on December 23 at the same time. South Asian Games Champion India keep leadership in Group A by beating Bhutan 19-0, Sri Lanka 7-0 and Bangladesh 6-0 while Nepal collected 31 goals, like India, in three group matches to win Group-B with 100 percent record. Both of them also contested the SAG Final last February at same country, with India winning 3-1. Pakistan expected a hard competition against India in the semi-finals. This is a learning curve for us. We are new to international football while India have been playing for some time, presently 56th in the FIFA Women World Ranking while Pakistan is in Provisional ranking only, said coach Tariq Lutfi. The ranking of a team is deemed official when they have played at least five matches against teams with an official ranking. Teams that are inactive during the four years are not listed. The Pak-India tie is expected to provide the sort of pageantry and passion the Sub-continent is known for despite India is tipped as firm favourite to win the event easily. It will be second ever international between two teams. The first one was played on 31 January 2010 saw India winning 6-0 in 11th South Asian Games title at Dhaka with hat tricks by Onium Devi, added by Sasmita Malik two, Laishram Naobi.

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