India continued its dominance at the SAFF Women’s Championship with the team lifting its fifth straight title by beating Nepal with a 3-1 win in the final. The pace of the match was intense from the begining as both sides tried hard to create pressure on each other.

In the first half, Dalmia Chhibber of India scored the first goal of the match in 26th minute which was equalled by Nepal’s Sabitra Bhandari at the 33rd minute. At the end of the first half of the match, both teams were at one goal each.The second half began with India creating the majority of the opportunities, with Sanju and Ratanbala putting their respective efforts just over the bar.

In the second half, Grace Dengmei scored the second goal at 63rd minute while Anju Tamang scored third and decisive goal in the 76th minute. This was India’s 23rd straight victory in the championship since its inception in 2010. India has won all five editions of SAFF championship so far.

SAFF

• The SAFF Women’s Championship, also called the South Asian Football Federation Women’s Cup, is the main association football competition of the women’s national football teams governed by the South Asian Football Federation (SAFF).
• Seven members currently compete in the tournament. Formerly, eight members competed, before the departure of Afghanistan from SAFF.
• The current SAFF members are Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. It is held every two years.
• So far India has won every edition, beating Nepal four times and Bangladesh once in the final.