Kathmandu. Nepal’s women’s youth team is in Bhutan with the confidence of playing in the AFC U-20 Women’s Asian Cup for the first time. The AFC U-20 Women’s Asian Cup Qualifiers Group ‘A’ is starting in Thimphu, Bhutan from today. Nepal, who are in Group A, will start their qualifying journey with a match against the home team Bhutan.

The match will start at 6:45 pm at the Changlimyang Stadium in Thimphu. On the eve of the competition, Nepal’s coach Yam Prasad Gurung said that he is confident that his team will qualify for the U-20 Women’s Asian Cup.

This group also includes strong North Korea and Saudi Arabia. North Korea is the champion team of the AFC Asian Cup. The other team in that group, Mongolia, withdrew from the competition.

Nepal is aiming to advance as the group runner-up. There are eight groups in the qualifiers, which involve 32 nations. The eight winners of each group and the best three runners-up will qualify for the U-20 Asia Cup to be held in Thailand next year.

Nepal finished as runners-up in the SAFF U-20 Women’s Championship held in Bangladesh two weeks ago. Nepal performed brilliantly in all the matches except the final match, but lost 4-0 in the final match against Bangladesh.

Coach Gurung said on Tuesday that the SAFF U-20 tournament was a good preparation for the Asian Cup qualifiers. Coach Gurung said that Bhutan was not considered weak because they were playing at home.