Stoppage time ecstasy for booters

The celebrations did not seem to end after the Bangladesh under-23 football team defeated Qatar 1-0 in their final group stage encounter of the Asian Games at the Patriot Chandrabhaga Stadium in Jakarta yesterday.

For a full 15 minutes or more, the Bangladesh dressing room turned into a chorus of 'Bangladesh! Bangladesh!' chants, shortly after a bout of celebrations had taken place on the pitch 10 minutes earlier.

This group of men -- the Bangladesh U-23 football team -- achieved what their predecessors have failed to do for 40 years, secure a knockout round berth in the Asian Games for the very first time. In addition, they did so by beating a team that will definitely lend a few players to their World Cup squad in four years' time.

There were moments of fear and moments of great frustration thus far in this campaign, and many of those moments went right down to the wire. Yesterday was no exception as the moment that mattered most to Bangladesh came right at the death when skipper Jamal Bhuiyan buried a right-footed strike into the net in the 93rd minute of their last Group B fixture.

Unlike their previous game, a 1-1 draw against Thailand that revived their hopes of a place in the knockout stage, Jamie Day's charges did not put up a dominant performance. Rather, Bangladesh were on the back foot throughout most of the game. However, what was evident throughout the 90 minutes was the discipline in Bangladesh's defensive organisation and also their fighting spirit, a quality the booters had been missing for a long time.

The 1-0 victory against Qatar ensured Bangladesh's qualification to the second round as the second team from the group with four points, behind group toppers Uzbekistan who won all three of their matches.

Bangladesh started strong with Mahbubur Rahman Sufi threatening the opposition goal in the eighth minute. The 20-year-old then let a gilt-edged chance to score in the 17th minute slip by taking a heavy first touch on a defensive blunder that saw him clear but he failed to shoot past the opposition goalkeeper from a one-on-one position.

That miss could have proved to be costly had the post not denied Qatar skipper Al Saadi Ahmed's free-kick in the 20th minute. While the Qataris were on the ascendancy, Bangladesh eked out one or two chances of their own, notably Jamal's corner in the 37th minute which found Topu Barman free inside the box but the latter's header went straight at the keeper.

After Qatar dominated the last quarter of an hour of the first half, an increasingly frustrated Bangladesh coach made two changes after the hour mark, bringing on Mohammad Abdullah and Matin Mia in place of Sufil and Saad Uddin.

In the 65th minute, a few slick passes found Bangladesh's Biplo Ahmed on the right and the youngster sidestepped two defenders before having a go at goal but only for the Qatari goalkeeper to complete an excellent save

As the clock ticked down, and with the result in the day's other match between Uzbekistan and Thailand not quite going in favour of Bangladesh, the frustrations grew. However, Jamal emerged from the midfield and sidestepped a defender before calmly picking a spot to the right side of the opposition keeper with an accurate right-footed shot. And that strike sealed history. Bangladesh will face either Saudi Arabia or Iran in the next round on August 24.