A wonderful goal by Hemanta Vincent was enough as Bangladesh defeated Sri Lanka 1-0 in their final group match to book a place in the semifinal of the Bangabandhu Gold Cup.
Vincent showed great technique on the volley to score to the right corner from a Hasan Emily lay off in the 40th minute. Sri Lanka had a penalty in the 65th minute but Nalaka Roshan forced brilliant double saves from goalkeeper Alam Sohel.
Prior to the match Sri Lanka coach Nikola Kavazovic was left scratching his head after a few injury woes in their 2-0 loss to Malaysia.
“We are finishing, long, hard, and poor calendar organized season, while their season begins in 10 days and they are perfectly physically prepared. Our players feel tired and lots of them are under question. Roshan, Bandara, Rifnaz, De Silva most probably will not played, so is Sanjeewa.”
“No excuses, we are all giving our best for National colours, no matter the circumstances.” Kavazovic added.
For Bangladesh coach Lodewijk de Kruif it was all about taking advantage of this second chance, where even a draw would have sent them into the semifinal. “They (boys) felt sorrow for the defeat against Malaysia but hopefully we can do better against Sri Lanka,” said de Kruif after training.
“In a group stage, we are very lucky to have the second chance. The first chance against Malaysia we did not take. Now we have the second chance against Sri Lanka and everyone wants to capitalize on that chance and win the three points that we need. So we will fight for it,” said a confident coach.
The hosts did indeed start off brightly dominating the first half with 65-35 possession and outshot Sri Lanka 5-1. Despite lack of pace up front, Bangladesh played with short passes to keep pressure on opponents. Sohel Rana, Zahid Hasan Emily and Hemanta Vincent combined for the goal minutes before the first half ended.
Sohel initiated the attack from midfield, sending the ball to Emily who chested it down and threaded it to Biswas outside the box. His powerful drive beat the Lankan keeper and sent the stadium into rapture.
Sheikh Russell forward Jahid Hossain had earlier failed to get on the score sheet . Fed by captain Mamunul Islam’s pass, he fired straight to the keeper in the 11th minute. Bangladesh missed another great chance a minute after the half-hour. Rayhan Hasan threw long into the box where midfielder Sohel Rana’s goal-bound shot took a deflection off a Lankan defender.
Sri Lanka had a big opportunity to go level in the second half when Bangladesh goalkeeper Shahidul Alam Sohel brought down Kavindu Ishan in the box and conceded a penalty in the 66th minute. But Shahidul made amends by blocking the resulting weak spot kick by Nalaka Roshan and the rebound header.
“We didn’t learn nothing new, nothing we did not know before arrival as I said million times. But nobody listens, we are out of sports form. At the moment, we improved our defensive organization, and till March we must improve offensive organization and offensive transition. We lost both games here in new system, but we will not change it.” Kavazovic mentioned after the match.
Kavazovic was in praise of the brilliantly worked out goal by Bangladesh.
“About their goal, that was master piece, almost impossible to defend such an attack through middle, with perfect demarcation and returned pass by Emily who is one of 3 best strikers in South Asia.”
“Nalaka Roshan deserves only honours because he was asked to come in 2nd half injured to help the team. He will be penalty taker in the future; all of the team has faith in him. All the players deserve honours for their efforts to represent Sri Lanka in best edition; despite the fact that all of them have small injuries and that they are exhausted. They did it, all media here, and coaches, recognized potential of our young team and we are leaving Bangladesh very proud.” a proud Kavazovic finally added.
1st Half highlights
2nd Half highlights
