Army girls annex National Football crown

LAHORE: Army thrashed Karachi United 7-1 to clinch the 12th National Women’s Football Championship title. In the coveted final match Army came out on top very convincingly after winning against the young Karachi United team and were crowned the champions of the National Women’s Championship.

Two matches were played on the last day of the championship. The first match was the 3rd place playoff between Punjab and Wapda, where Wapda utterly dominated the game winning it by 10-0 margin. Sahar Zaman opened the scoring and scored two goals along with Dua, Maria and Kainat who also scored two goals. Mehnaz and Aliya scored 1 goal each helping Wapda win the bronze medal.

In the final, Karachi United came face to face against Army team. However the home team was convincingly beaten by the defending Champions Army who opened the scoring quite early in the match and showed no signs of stopping. Hajra opened the scoring for Army in the 3rd minute of the game.

At half time Army had built up quite a lead for themselves scoring 4 goals thanks to Hajra, Eshal, Alina and Malika. After the break Karachi united managed to pull one back thanks to Suha Herani’s strike but it was not enough, as Army further extended their lead by scoring three more goals thanks to Eshaal’s second goal along with Aliza and Alina’s goal. The match ended with 7-1 score.

Chief guest Dr. Shehla Raza, Minister for Women’s Development awarded the Army team with the winning trophy and cash prize of 5 lakh rupees. Pakistan Football Federation Normalization Committee Chairman Humza Khan awarded Karachi United with the second place trophy and cash prize of 3 lakh rupees. Whereas, Director Women Development Raheela Zarmeen presented the Wapda team with the third place trophy and cash prize of 2 lakh rupees.

This was the first time in Pakistani football that the amount of prize money given to Women’s teams were the same as that of Men’s game.