DHAKA – Bangladesh’s hopes of winning the Tri-Nation Cup title shattered after losing a 1-2 goal to host Nepal in the final match held today at Dasharath Stadium in Kathmandu.
Many expected the footballers will bring trophy from Nepal for the country on the occasion of golden jubilee of independence. It was also repeatedly heard from the footballers that they want to give a trophy to the country on the occasion of fifty years of anniversary of independence and the birth centenary of Bangabandhu. But, Nepal has shattered all Bangladesh’s hope after beating Bangladesh in the final match.
In the day’s match, Sanjog Rai and Bishal Rai scored one goal each to secure victory for Nepal who played a much better football in the final compared to their previous two matches of the tournament. Mahbubur Rahman scored a lone goal for Bangladesh.
Nepal launched series of attacks in the beginning of the match and took 2-0 lead at the breather and the hosts maintained their domination till the final whistle.
Rai opened the account scoring the first goal for Nepal in the 18th minute with his lovely strike while Bishal Rai doubled the lead in 42nd minute utilizing a cheeky pass from Sanjok Rai.
Trailing a 0-2 goal in the first half, it was uphill task for coach Jamie Day’s men to stage a fight back in the match. Mahbubur Rahman however pulled one back scoring a lone goal for Bangladesh in the 83rd minute of the match. After that it was quite impossible dfor Bangladesh to stage a fight back in the match in the remaining proceeding.
Nepal dominated the entire proceeding, especially in the first half, and notched their deserving victory while Bangladesh were off-colored on the day. Sanjog Rai of Nepal was adjudged the man of the match while Rohit Chand of the champion team was given the most valuable players award. The champions received USD 5,000 while the runners-up Bangladesh got USD 3,000.
Bangladesh earlier confirmed their spot of final with four points following their 1-0 win against Kyrgyzstan Olympic team in the tournament opening match and played out to a goalless draw with host Nepal.
On the other hand, Nepal earlier shared one point with Kyrgyzstan playing to a goalless draw in their first match and confirmed their place of final again playing a stalemate with Bangladesh in their second and last match of the round robin league.
Squads:
Bangladesh – Anisur Rahman, Mehedi Hasan, Rimon Hossain, Jamal Bhuyan, Matin Miah, Suman Reza, Riyadul Hasan, Manik Hossain Mollah, Mehedi Hassan, Rakib Hossain and Saad Uddin.
Nepal- Kiran Kumar, Ranjit Dhimal, Rohit Chand, Ananta Tamang, Dinesh Rajbanshi, Tridev Gurung, Tej Tamang, Sanjog Rai, Bishal Raj, Sunil Bal and Anjan Bista.BSS
