Kathmandu, Feb 15: Nepal has finished runner-up in the first Hero Gold cup women’s football tournament held in Odisha state of India. 
In the final match held earlier this evening at the Kalinga stadium in Bhubhaneswar of the State, Nepal went down to Myanmar 1-3, ending up as runners-up in the tournament. 
Buoyed by back-to-back wins against higher-ranked hosts India and Iran, Nepal maintained the score until half-time but failed to keep up the momentum in the second half. Myanmar opened the score in the 34th minute but was neutralized by Nepal in injury time of the first half, thanks to a volley by Manjali Yonzon. 
However, after second half, the momentum changed in favour of Myanmar and they added two goals in quick succession. The second and third goal came in the 54th and 63rd minute respectively. And Nepal could not score further in the remaining 30 minutes. 
It may be noted that Nepal had lost its opening match in the tournament to the same team, Myanmar by 0-3 and ended up losing the last or final match to the same opponent albeit with a better score of 1-3. 
Myanmar is ranked 44th while Nepal ranks in the 108th position in the FIFA rankings. 
Nepal won a cash prize of Rs. 800,000 for finishing second in the tournament jointly organised by All India Football Federation and the Odhisa State government. Myanmar took home Rs. 1,120,000. Likewise, Nepal’s Sabita Bhandari and Myanmar’s Ye Ooo shared the top goal scorer award of Rs. 160,000. Both scored 4 goals each in the tournament. —-
(RSS)