'Strength of character got us over the line’: Butler hails gritty 2-0 win against India

Head coach Peter Butler lauded the character and resilience of his players after Bangladesh overcame early pressure from India to secure a 2-0 win in their second match of the SAFF Women’s U-19 Championship at the Pokhara Stadium in Nepal on Monday.

The victory -- Bangladesh’s second in as many matches -- put the defending champions on the brink of reaching the final with six points. They now need just a single point from their final group match against hosts Nepal on Wednesday. Nepal, who beat Bhutan 2-1 later in the day, sit joint second with India, both on three points.

The women in red and green found themselves on the back foot early on, with India dominating possession and creating a couple of opportunities to break the deadlock. However, Butler’s charges gradually settled, weathered the initial storm before Arpita Bishwas and Alpi Akter struck on either side of halftime to seal the win.

“I think they [India] are a taller, more physical side than what we [Bangladesh] are. We are smaller and slight, but I thought our strength of character and the way we managed the game got us over the line. We fully deserved the win. I thought we were the better team,” Butler said at the post-match press conference yesterday.

The 59-year-old coach further praised his players for showing grit in the face of adversity.

“The girls showed a great deal of character and resilience. We didn’t start very well. We had a few little injuries, a few knocks, as you’d expect. I thought we weathered the early storm, pressure, call it what you want. I thought we then went on and managed the game very, very well. India had their moments for sure, as they’ve got some really good players,” said Butler.

Butler also explained the reasons behind replacing Mamoni Chakma and Kranuching Marma in the first half, along with three more substitutions in the second half.

“I don’t think I took off the strikers. We had an injury problem. Sauravi [Akanda Pritty] got injured pretty early, Trishna [Rani] got a bit of a knock, but I didn’t take them off until the 75th minute. I took off Kranuching [Marma], who had a neck problem before the game, so she was struggling and we had to take her off. I’m trying to think what else we did, I have a mental block here. We made a couple of changes,” Butler said.

He also clarified his decision to substitute Mamoni Chakma.

“I just felt that Mamoni wasn’t tracking the right-back and wasn’t doing the defensive jobs. And if you want to play for me and you want to play in my teams, you’ve got to do the defensive graft as well as the attacking side of it.”