Bangladesh Men’s U-23 Football team beat Sri Lanka Men’s U-23 Football team in their 3rd match on Thursday, report agencies. Bangladesh revived their chances of reaching the final of the men’s football event with a 1-0 victory against Sri Lanka in their third game at the Dasarath Rangasala in Kathmandu.
Midfielder Mahbubur Rahman Sufil scored the match-winner for Bangladesh in the 11th minute by a low-range grounder from the danger zone, utilizing a short pass from forward Saad Uddin (1-0). Bangladesh maintained their early lead against the islanders Sri Lanka displaying a good brand of football till the referee blew the final whistle.
Bangladesh will play their 4th and last league match against hosts Nepal on 8 December at 5:15 pm to decide their final berth. The two top teams of the league basis matches will play in the final on 10 December at the same venue. In the day’s other match, Bhutan beat Maldives by 2-1 goals at the same venue. Earlier, Bangladesh Men’s U-23 Football started SA Games campaign with an embarrassing 0-1 goal defeat against lowly Bhutan in the opening match and played to a 1-1 draw with Maldives in the 2nd match.
With Bhutan going to the top of the table with six points following their victory over Maldives earlier in the day and Nepal already on four points from two matches, Bangladesh desperately needed a win to stay in the race for the final. The victory came courtesy of Mahbubur Rahman Sufil’s 11th-minute goal -- a simple tap-in, set up by Saad Uddin following a through-ball from Jamal Bhuiyan, but the victory could have been by a much bigger margin had two substitute forwards not wasted three scoring chances towards the end.
Bangladesh coach Jamie Day had made four changes from the last game, with Nabib Newaz Jibon, Rahmat Mia, Biplob Ahmed and Mohammad Ibrahim replaced by Mahbubur Rahman Sufil, Bishwanath Ghosh, Mohammad Al-Amin and Yeasin Khan in a 5-3-2 formation.
Despite the early goal, Bangladesh failed to take the game by the scruff of its neck, playing against a side that had played with less than 24 hours’ recovery.
There weren’t many attacking moves from either side in the rest of the first half before Rahmat Mia and Jibon came in place of Al Amin and Sufil, and things started moving for Bangladesh in the attacking third. Soon after coming on, Rahmat almost scored with a brilliant floating attempt on goal which Sri Lanka goalkeeper Sujan Perera just about kept from going in, tipping it over the bar.
Then Jibon had the chance to kill off the game when he timed his run perfectly on a brilliant through-ball, but he slowed his pace down looking for support when he should have buried it past the keeper. Mohammad Ibrahim came in for Rabiul as Jamie Day fielded seven players who can all play in defence, but Bangladesh continued to create chances and the missed chances began to stack up, with Ibrahim missing two gilt-edged opportunities from the top of the box.