Iran finished top of Group H of the AFC U-20 Women's Asian Cup qualifiers at the cost of Bangladesh at the Birshreshtha Shaheed Shipahi Mohammad Mustafa Kamal Stadium in the capital's Kamalapur Sunday.  The deciding match ended in a goalless position in the first half.  Iranian forward Negin Zandi scored the winner in the 85th minute (1-0) after Bangladesh spoiled some good opportunities to score goals. Iran, the No. 68 team in the current FIFA ranking, topped Group H with an unbeaten run to qualify for the second round of the competition, securing six points from two straight matches. Bangladesh, ranked No. 140, were eliminated from the competition after finishing runners-up with three points from two matches. Iran just needed a draw to top their group after crushing Turkmenistan 7-1 in the opening match. Bangladesh beat Turkmenistan 4-0. This was the first defeat for Bangladesh against Iran in an age group football tournament following their 2-0 win against the Middle Eastern team in the AFC U-14 regional championship in Nepal in 2015. Bangladesh also beat Iran 3-0 in the AFC U-16 tournament in Dhaka in 2016 and 8-0 in a U-15 football tournament in Thailand in 2018. The second round of the tournament, with eight group champions, will be held during June 1-11. Four teams from the second round will earn the right to play in the eight-team final round in Uzbekistan during March 3-16 next year along with Japan, North Korea, South Korea and the hosts.

Bangladesh youth team completed their Group B engagement of the five-nation AFC U-20 Asian Cup Qualifiers with winning note outplaying beating Himalayan nation Nepal by 3-0 goals in their last group match at the Sheikh Ali Bin Mohammed Bin Khalifa Stadium in Bahrain Sunday night. They clearly dominated the first half and led by 2-0 goals at the break. Following this match, Qatar still dominated the group with their all-win record securing full nine points from three matches while hosts Bahrain and Bangladesh followed with seven points each, but the former enjoying the advantage in terms of goal difference (+6 over Bangladesh), and having a game in hand. By virtue of the day's well merited victory, the slim chance of Bangladesh to reach the 16- team final round of the meet is alive if Qatar can beat Bahrain by a good margin in the last group match on Monday, and results in other groups favour them - only the best second-placed teams get to qualify for next round.Two top teams of the group, Qatar and Bahrain, will meet each other Tuesday night (Sept 19).Earlier, Bangladesh Youth team played goalless draw with stronger Bahrain in the first match last Saturday, tasted the first victory beating Bhutan by 2-1 goals in the 2nd match last Monday and conceded 0-3 goals defeat in the 3rd match against Qatar, the hosts of FIFA World Cup 2022.  

Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) on Wednesday initially picked up 33 women’s booters to join the residential training camp aiming to form two separate teams for the AFC U-20 and AFC U-17 Women’s Championships Qualifiers.