Nepal beats Bhutan 8-0 in SAFF U-20 Women’s Championship with hat-tricks from Purnima and Meena

Nepal secured a dominant 8-0 win over Bhutan in their fifth match of the SAFF U-20 Women’s Championship, currently being held in Bangladesh. The big victory was powered by hat-tricks from Purnima Rai and Meena Deuba.

Along with their hat-tricks, Kusum Khatiwada scored one goal, and Bhutan scored an own goal. Nepal had a strong start, taking a 6-0 lead in the first half and adding two more goals in the second half.

Meena opened the scoring in the very first minute. In the 9th minute, a shot by Samiksha from outside the box hit the crossbar, bounced off the Bhutan goalkeeper, and went into the net, making it 2-0.

Meena scored her second goal in the 12th minute. In the 23rd minute, she assisted Purnima for a tap-in goal, extending the lead to 4-0.

In injury time of the first half, Purnima scored a header from Sarita Kumari’s free kick to make it 5-0. Just before the half ended, Purnima completed her hat-trick, giving Nepal a 6-0 lead.

In the 63rd minute, Kusum Khatiwada scored Nepal’s seventh goal, and one minute later, Meena completed her hat-trick to make it 8-0. No more goals were scored after that.

This was Nepal’s second match against Bhutan in this tournament. In their first meeting last Friday, Nepal had defeated Bhutan 6-1.

Nepal lost 3-2 to Bangladesh in their second match, but they beat Sri Lanka 7-0 in both the third and fourth matches.

With this win, Nepal has 12 points from 5 games. Bangladesh also has 12 points from 4 games and will play Sri Lanka later today.

The tournament follows a double round-robin format with four teams. The team with the most points at the end will be declared champion.

Nepal will face Bangladesh in their final and most crucial match on Monday.