Perfect start for U-18s
Beat Sri Lanka 3-0 in first match
Bangladesh made a perfect start to their SAFF U-18 Championship campaign with a 3-0 win against Sri Lanka at the APF Stadium in Kathmandu.
Tanbir Hossain headed the boys in red and green ahead inside the first minute before late goals from Foysal Ahmed Fahim and Fahim Morshed ensured a comfortable victory for Bangladesh, which drove them close to a semifinal berth.
The charges of Andrew Peter Turner will play their second game of Group B against India tomorrow. Group A features Nepal, Maldives and Bhutan.
Bangladesh made a lightning quick start to the game, taking in the lead in the 59th second when Tanbir headed in Miraz Hossain’s corner at the far corner of the net.
Although Bangladesh did not dominate the game, they certainly had more possession and had more shots on target in the rest of the half.
Sri Lanka earned a few corner kicks on either side of the break but goalkeeper Shanto Kumar Ray was up to the task while a defender made a goalline save to deny the Lankans an equaliser.
The Sri Lankan goalkeeper made a fine save to deny substitute Amir Hakim Bappi after the hour-mark before Shanto made an excellent save from a corner, with the rebound missing the target by a distance.
As Sri Lanka were looking for an equaliser, Fahim scored a spectacular goal from the edge of the box to take the game away in the 77th minute, beating the Sri Lankan goalkeeper with a thunderous volley after the goalkeeper had fisted away Miraj’s corner.
Then Fahim wrapped up the victory nine minutes later with a diagonal left-footed shot, picking the far corner of the net.
The win pleased the Bangladesh coach but he felt his team could have won the game by a bigger margin.
“It’s always a hard game, the first game of any tournament…We had to be at our best defensively. We could’ve improved little things in our shape,” the coach said in his post-match reaction.
“It was a good time to score early [the first goal]. It showed that we were working on certain things. We were fitter than them and we could have won by four or five in the end,” Turner added.