Disappointed Cabrera looking for answers
Bangladesh coach Javier Cabrera was disappointed with the way his charges dropped their guard suddenly in a 5-0 thrashing by Palestine in a World Cup Qualifier in Kuwait on Thursday night, despite fighting toe to toe with the Middle East nation for a large portion of the game.
Despite having seen their defence exposed couple of times early in the first half, Jamal Bhuiyan and Co kept the 86-place-higher team at bay for the first 40 minutes before mistakes at the back started to creep in fast, seeing them concede four goals in the span of 12 minutes.
"It was quite tough, especially the result. I think we were able to be very competitive for the first 40 minutes of the game and were able to compete face-to-face against a strong team like Palestine but the way we dropped (our guard) in the first half….we should not have dropped that much," Cabrera said at the post-match press conference.
Having survived a few scares, Bangladesh created a couple of opportunities of their own in the first half. Had it not been for a wayward shot in front of goal from midfielder Mohammad Sohel Rana or an ill-timed pass inside the box from Rakib Hosain, Bangladesh might have even been in front. However, they had to pay heavily for those missed chances as the sharp-shooting Palestinians spared no opportunity to pounce on the opposition's mistakes with Oday Dabbagh slamming a hattrick and Shaheb Qunbar bagging a brace.
"I think it was too hard to afford those things that happened suddenly in the half-time. It was difficult for us to come back in the second half and we were completely outplayed by a strong team and that is the reality," admitted the Spaniard, adding that he could not wrap his head around the fact that his charges did not play with the same intensity in the second half.
This is the second defeat for Cabrera's charges in three matches of the qualifying campaign, having started it with a 7-0 drubbing away to Australia before holding Lebanon to a 1-1 draw.
With the marauding Palestinians again slated to face Bangladesh on March 26 in Dhaka, Cabrera wants to look forward and root out the mistakes.
"As a team, we have to look at ourselves and try to find out the solution to be a better team for the next game and the rest of the year," the 38-year-old coach said. "There were good things in the game, even though it was difficult to understand the final score but there are things that we can give continuity and for sure there is going to be some positive outcome in the next game. Now it is time to analyse, time to get ready to compete against Palestine at home and we will probably be stronger [ in the next match] than today."