Defending champion APF tops League table

By A Staff Reporter,Kathmandu, Sept. 16: Armed Police Force (APF) Club, the defending champion, has climbed to the top of the table in the first phase of the ANFA Women’s League 2080 after handing Karnali Province a resounding 6-0 win on Sunday.

The 23rd match of the League played in ANFA Complex, Lalitpur, ended in complete favour of the APF. They were dominating the possession and creating more and more chances with every combination, which led them to score half a dozen times against second-to-last positioned Karnali.

After the first whistle, it did not take APF to get to a lead. The first goal for the defending champion came in the fourth minute. APF earned a corner but their No. 11 could not deliver it enough inside the box; however, the poor corner kick was headed inside the box by Karnali’s No. 7 for the tall Nisha Thokar to head the ball towards the back of the net.

Within the first half, APF made it 3-0 with two goals from Rashmi Kumari Ghising (11th and 25th minutes).

Karnali was holding some ground, but they gave away a penalty in the 52nd minute as APF’s No. 8 was fouled near the penalty spot. Gita Rana Magar converted the penalty and made it 4-0.

While Hima Rawat made it 5-0 in the 77th minute, Karnali’s Barsha Oli scored an own goal in the final minutes of the official play.

APF now has 13 points from 10 matches. They are the only unbeaten team in the League, in five matches, APF has played a goalless draw against Nepal Police in the duo’s first encounter of the League.

Nepal Police, which was on the top until Saturday, has played two draws, the last with Tribhuvan Army on September 14. 

Similarly, the second match on Sunday was also a stalemate. Bagmati Youth Club and Chandrapur Municipality could not score any goals throughout the game. Bagmati, with four points from a win and Sunday’s draw, is in eighth position while Chandrapur has six points from three draws and a win and is in the sixth position.

The fight for the top five has started getting interesting. Koshi, with 10 points, is in fourth and Waling, with six points in four matches, has a chance to ensure its spot in the Top 5 when it faces bottom-placed Sudurpashchim on Monday. Sudurpashchim has not opened its point tally with four consecutive losses.