SPORTS REPORTER

Having made history with a maiden Women’s Asian Cup berth last month, Bangladesh are within touching distance of yet another historic achievement with a first ever U-20 Women’s Asian Cup beckoning.

What looked like an uphill task before the campaign started now looks very much within the reach of Peter Butler’s charges, thanks to their enterprising football in the Laotian capital of Vientiane over the last four days.

Bangladesh started their Group H campaign with an assured 3-1 victory against the hosts before dispatching Timor-Leste with an 8-0 drubbing, helping themselves to the top of the table with six points and a positive goal-difference of 10.

The fact that South Korea -- ranked 21st in the world as opposed to Bangladesh’s 104th – are second behind Bangladesh, courtesy of goals-scored count, speaks volumes of how dominating the women and red and green have been so far.

With South Korea on a positive goal-difference of 10 too, but behind Bangladesh due to having scored one goal less, they will have to beat Bangladesh in the last match today to grab the one spot from the group for the final round, which will be held in Thailand in April next year.

The top teams from the eight groups alongside three best runners-up finishers will go through to the final round, joining hosts Thailand as the 12th team.

The South Asian champions know they will be through as group winners with either a victory or a draw. Even a defeat by a small margin could be enough for them to progress, given the current standings of the other teams and the match-ups on the final match-day today.

With one-day gap each between the match-days, Butler’s charges went through recovery – stretching gym and swimming – at the team hotel on Saturday.

With South Korea labouring to a 1-0 win against Laos on Friday night, the Bangladesh players should be confident enough of securing the top spot in the group with a victory and not wait for few more hours to learn their fate once the other groups are done with.

As Butler said after the Timor-Leste game, Bangladesh will “give it their best shot.”