Bhutan hurdle with ifs and buts
Terming Monday's defeat to Nepal as a 'bad day', Bangladesh are looking forward to ending the SAFF U-18 Championship on a winning note against hosts Bhutan in their crucial fourth and final match at Changlimithang Stadium in Thimphu, Bhutan today.
The final matchday of the five-team championship has turned into a title-deciding one as four teams – Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Bhutan – are all on six points from three outings. All four teams have a chance to lift the title but there are a lot of 'ifs and buts' as their head-to-head record will come first to decide the champions if two or more teams finish on top with equal points.
As far as Bangladesh's title chances are concerned, they will need to beat Bhutan first and then hope that India does not lose against Nepal in the last match. However, if both the matches end in draw, India will lift the title with a superior goal difference.
Whatever the equation ahead of today's matches, the Bangladesh team management does not want to dwell on those probabilities; rather they want to complete the tournament on a winning note by beating Bhutan.
“Every team experiences bad days in tournaments and Monday night was a bad one for us. The boys realised that the damage has already been done and that they missed a good opportunity to go close to the title,” coach Mahabub Hossain Roxy said. “Now the boys are determined to end the championship with a win against Bhutan.”
Roxy believes that his charges played in a more planned way against Nepal compared to the matches against India and Maldives, but they were punished heavily for two mistakes.
“The boys executed the plan well to put huge pressure on Nepal in a bid to realising the game plan to take the lead within the first 20 minutes. They created four scoring chances but luck was not with us as we were denied by the woodwork while the opposition goalkeeper made some brilliant saves,” Roxy explained.
The former national footballer however did not expect defender Bishwanath Ghosh to commit successive offences within four minutes as the right-back had quite a bit of experience in international and domestic matches.
About the decisive strike from 45 yards out by Roman Limbu, Roxy said goalkeeper Mahfuz Hossain Pritom admitted that he could not judge the flight of the ball because the ball took a turn against the wind.
Roxy said that they are planning to adopt a different strategy against Bhutan, who played counter-attacking football to beat Nepal and Maldives before being beaten by India.
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