NEW DELHI: Bangladesh kept themselves in the hunt for a semifinal berth in the SAFF Championship with a gritty 3-1 win over Maldives in Bengaluru on Sunday.
Hamza Mohammad (17th minute) put Maldives in front, but Bangladesh struck back through Rakib Hossain (42nd minute), Tariq Kazi (67th minute) and Shekh Morsalin (90th minute) to collect three important points in a Group B match.
Maldives also have three points, courtesy their 2-0 win over Bhutan in the first match. Now, both Maldives and Bangladesh are in a must-win situation against Lebanon, who also have 3 points, and Bhutan in their respective last league matches on June 28.
Despite a win was mandatory for them to stay afloat, Bangladesh did not show much urgency in the initial stages of the match. Maldives made full use of that laxity to go ahead through Hamza.
The goal seemed to have made Bangladesh players realise the need to be more proactive, and it reflected in their moves.
They mounted quick counter attacks and closed ranks whenever Maldvies tried to add to their goal tally.
The experienced Rakib was the kingpin of Bangladesh fightback and fittingly, he secured the equaliser when he headed the ball past Maldives custodian Hussain Shareef off a free kick.
Bangladesh continued in the same vein the second half too and pressed forward consistently for more goals. Their efforts bore fruits in the 67th minute when Kazi exploited a goal mouth melee following a corner kick.
He gently tapped in the ball amid the confusion to take his side 2-1 up, and, surprisingly, Maldives players seemed to have sapped all energy.
On the other hand, Bangladesh players appeared even more sprightly and orchestrated several moves to take the match further beyond their opponents.
Bangladesh snuffed out any faint hopes that Maldives harboured of levelling the scores when Shekh Morsalin expertly evaded Shareef to thud the ball into the net to make it 3-1 in the 90th minute.
PTI

Press Trust of India