Nepal clinch it in style
Nepal broke their 23-year title drought by clinching the Bangabandhu Gold Cup with an emphatic 3-0 win over Bahrain in the final at the Bangabandhu National Stadium yesterday.
Bimal Gharti Magar, Bishal Rai and Nawayug Shrestha struck one goal apiece to deliver the first international title for Nepal since the 1993 South Asian Games in Dhaka, which had come nine years their first international title at home soil.
Coming into the final for the first time in 17 years, Nepal were the clear favourites against a youthful Bahrain, featuring players born between 1995 and 1996. And the Himalayan nation notched up the win by displaying some entertaining football in front of some 15,000 holiday crowd.
The Gorkhalis got off to a fine start as the eventual man-of-the-final Bimal headed from close range in the fifth minute after Bahrain goalkeeper Mahboob Al Doseri had failed to catch a header from Anjan Bista.
Bahrain, who looked comparatively better than they were against Bangladesh in the semifinal, found an opportunity to equalise halfway through the first half, but Abdul Rahman Abdulla saw his reverse-attempt thwarted by Nepal goalkeeper Bikesh Kuthu.
The second half of the game was more entertaining as both teams played attacking football and both goalkeepers produced some brilliant saves but the Bahrain goalkeeper had to concede two goals -- one for a defensive mistake and the other due to his own mistake.
Players from both sides lost their temper and the Indian referee gave marching order to a player each from the two sides on the hour-mark before Nepal doubled the lead three minutes from time, with Bishal driving home a cutback from Anjan. Tournament's top-scorer Nawayug then nodded a well-judged cross from Bimal into the open net in the 90th minute to complete the rout before Bahrain had a second man sent off on the stroke of final whistle.
“The players were asked to make history and they were told not go back home empty-handed. They kept my words. I want to dedicate this trophy to football-loving Nepalese people and the victims of last year's earthquake,” said Nepal coach Bal Gopal Maharjan, who was given the national team's charge for the first time after successfully guiding the under-19 team to SAFF U-19 Championship title and qualification for the final round of the AFC U-19 Championship.
Bahrain's assistant coach Al Nasr was happy despite seeing his side finish runners-up.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina witnessed the final match as chief guest and later distributed the awards among the two teams.
Champions Nepal received a prize-purse of 50,000 dollars while runner-up Bahrain bagged half the amount.
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