U-16 boys lose 2-0 against Qatar

Bangladesh went down to a 2-0 defeat against Qatar in their opening match of the AFC U-16 Championship Qualifiers in Doha last night.

Despite being on the backfoot for most of the match, Robert Ryles’ charges defended bravely and kept the Qataris at bay in the first half.

Qatar had the lions’ share of possession, but thanks to a goalline save from Saiful Islam Saeed in the 21st minute, Bangladesh remained unscathed. In fact, the best chance of the half came to Bangladesh when Moinul Islam found acres of space inside the opposition box on a through-ball, but his tame effort failed to trouble the Qatar goalkeeper.

Bangladesh conceded the lead 10 minutes after restart when Rashid Al-Abdullah found the far corner of the net with a grounder. Qatar scored their second in the last minute of regulation time from a well-worked move.

Bangladesh had beaten Qatar 2-0 in the last edition of the qualifiers two years ago.

The boys in red and green would take on Bhutan in their next Group E match tomorrow before playing against Yemen two days later.