Hosts get Palestine in semifinal

Pre-tournament favourites Palestine set their Bangabandhu Gold Cup semifinal clash against hosts Bangladesh when they sent defending champions Nepal packing with a 1-0 win in their final group match at the Sylhet District Stadium yesterday.

With two wins from as many matches, Palestine topped Group A ahead of runners-up Tajikistan, who face Group B champions Philippines.

To emerge group champions, Palestine needed only a single point against Nepal, who required all three points to avoid the group-stage exit.  But the defending champions lacked urgency throughout the match even though they avoided a bigger-margin defeat by defending heavily inside their own half.

The match was apparently played in Nepal's half in the first half before Nepal tried to go on counter sporadically but they never managed to have a shot on target.   

Palestine came close to taking the lead in the 16th minute when Helal Mousa entered the danger zone from the right but his powerful drive at near post drifted away while Nepal goalkeeper Bikesh Kuthu had no trouble in dealing with Sameh Maraaba's shot on the half-hour mark. 

After resumption, Palestine coach Noureddin Ali brought some positional changes, sending on Jonathan Zorrilla and Mahmoud Ali Wisat but the Nepal goalkeeper thwarted two good efforts from Islam Batran and Abdullah Jaber.

Bikesh, however, was helpless against a powerful header from Khaled J Salem, who headed home a well-judged cross from Abdullah Jaber in the 70th minute.  

“Nepal played well but we did not lose our focus. We played better in the second half and brought some tactical changes and won the match,” said Palestine coach Ali.

“It was another tough match for us and Palestine are better than us in every aspect. I think two good teams from our group advanced to the semifinals,” said Nepal coach Bal Gopal Maharjan.