Maldives through

Bangladesh Olympic team's semifinal hopes in the Bangabandhu Gold Cup faded away when they suffered a 2-0 defeat to Maldives in their second group match at the Bangabandhu National Stadium yesterday.

With the second successive win Maldives became the first team to advance to the semifinals with a match in hand leaving Bangladesh Olympic team with a slim chance to progress to the last four as Bahrain are in the second position with four points and they need only a draw against Maldives in the last match to become Group B runners-up.

But if Bahrain suffer a defeat to Maldives and Bangladesh beat winless Cambodia in their last matches respectively, the home team will have a chance to advance to the semifinals on the basis of a better goal difference.

Bangladesh Olympic team came into the match against Maldives with a creditable 1-1 draw against Bahrain and showed early promises but two defensive fumbles sank them within the first 25 minutes.

The backline marshalled by experienced Rezaul Karim, Kesto Kumar, Arup Kumar and young Shakil Ahmed were exposed time and again by the speedy Maldivians, who tore apart the Bangladesh backline to post a deserved win following their entertaining 3-2 win over Cambodia.

Having snatched the ball from Masuk Mia Jonny from the left flank, Nashid Ahmed, the scorer in a 3-1 win over Bangladesh in the SAFF Suzuki Cup match, ran down the left flank to race past defender Kesto Kumar to put a perfect cross for unmarked forward Easa Ismail, who made no mistake to fire home to put Maldives ahead in the 16th minute.

After going down, Bangladesh pressed for the equaliser but the backline made another fumble to restrict Easa Ismail, who managed to overcome the challenge of defenders Kesto and Reza before cutting it back for Imaaz Ahmed, who tapped in to double the margin and took the match away from Bangladesh in the 25th minute.  

Maldives then exposed the Bangladesh backline a few times but the forwards saw their drives narrowly missed the target, much to the relief of Bangladesh goalkeeper Ziaur Rahman.

Bangladesh however dominated the second half with an energetic performance with substitute winger Rubel Mia threatening Maldives with his speedy runs and he also created two scoring chances but forward Aminur Rahman Sajib could not cash in on any of those opportunities in the second half.