Lalitpur, April 20

Tribhuvan Army Club (TAC) and Nepal APF Club advanced to the Super League of the Women’s National Football League here at the ANFA Complex grounds today.

In the group B matches, TAC thrashed Western Region 9-0, while APF routed Far-western Region by 14-0. TAC and APF have six points each from two matches and the latter lead the table on superior goal margin. APF have scored 30, while Army have 29 goals. Western and Far-western are out of the league with a game in hand.

In the first match, Sharmila Thapa scored five goals alone for TAC, while Dipa Adhikari netted a hat-trick and Sapna Lama added one. Adhikari opened the scoring for TAC in the 11th minute and Thapa doubled the lead in the 14th minute. Thapa scored her second in the 16th minute. Adhikari then added one more in the 31st minute to make it 4-0. Thapa completed her second hat-trick of the tournament in 35th minute.

In the second half, Western defenders made tight marking not allowing TAC strikers to break through. But Lama found her way and penetrated through to score the team’s sixth goal in the 71st minute. Thapa scored her fourth goal in the 77th minute and netted fifth three minutes later. Adhikari completed her hat-trick in the penultimate minute of the match.

TAC coach Chakra Tamang was satisfied with the result but said they needed to improve in upcoming matches. “Our next match is with APF and they are strong. We have to give everything to win the match and also the league. Our defences are yet to be tested and we have to work hard,” Tamang said.

In another match, Sajana Rana and Sabitra Bhandari netted four goals each for APF, while Anita Basnet scored hat-trick. Anu Lama scored a brace and Manu Dong added one. Rana scored in the 25th, 41st, 76th and 81st minutes, while Bhandari had provided the lead to APF in the 10th minute and scored two more in the 13th and 77th minutes to complete her hat-trick. She added one more in the 78th minute. Basnet found the back of the nets in the 14th, 39th and 75th to complete her hat-trick. Lama netted in the 29th minute and injury time of the match. While Dong netted in the 87th minute.

APF coach Narku Rai was not happy with the performance of his girls. “The players underestimated the opponents. We could have won the match by bigger margin. We can’t let things go as the match against TAC will decide the group winners,” Rai said.