KATHMANDU: Nepali forward Meena Deuba scored a hat-trick as Nepal registered a resounding victory over Sri Lanka in their third match of the South Asian Football Confederation (SAFC) U-20 Women’s Championship.

Nepal defeated Sri Lanka 7-0 in a match held at the Bashundhara Kings Arena in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, on Tuesday night. The match, which started about an hour and a half later than scheduled, saw Nepal score five goals in the first half and add two more goals in the second half.

Meena scored a hat-trick in Nepal’s victory. She completed her hat-trick by scoring in the 8th, 42nd and 70th minutes of the match. Purnima Rai also scored two goals, while Samiksha Magar and Sarita Nath scored one goal each.

With the win, Nepal has collected 6 points from three matches. Bangladesh has 9 points from the same number of matches. Nepal defeated Bhutan 6-1 in the first match. They lost to Bangladesh in the second match. Sri Lanka, on the other hand, is winless in the competition.

Nepal took the lead in the eighth minute of the match. Meena scored the opening goal for Nepal. Then, in the 13th minute of the match, Samiksha doubled Nepal’s lead.

Meena increased Nepal’s lead by scoring her second individual goal in the 42nd minute of the match. Then Purnima added two more goals in the first half alone.

Meena completed her hat-trick by scoring her third individual goal in the 70th minute of the match. Then, Sarita added another goal in the first minute of injury time of the second half.