Bangladesh wait for final berth

After beating Maldives and Sri Lanka’s defeat to Seychelles, Bangladesh national football team are now waiting for a place in the final of the four-nation Mahinda Rajapaksha tournament in Sri Lanka.

Bangladesh currently lead the points table with four points from two games, with Seychelles at second with the same number of points.

The red and greens ended their wait of 18 years to beat Maldives on Saturday where goals from skipper Jamal Bhuyan and Topu Barman led them to a 2-1 victory.

Bangladesh’s next opponent, Sri Lanka, lost to Seychelles on Saturday and currently sit at the bottom of the table with one point.

Bangladesh now only need one point from their match against Sri Lanka to qualify for the final.

Ahead of the match, Bangladesh midfielder Md Ridoy said that they will try their best to reach the final with a win.

“All our matches are important. We will try to win our final game of the group stage. Sri Lanka lost against Seychelles, but we should not belittle any team because we need to prove ourselves on the pitch,” he said.

Bangladesh had a bumpy start to the tournament as they drew against Seychelles, a match where Mario Lemos’ men were considered the favourites.

Bangladesh left-back Rahmat Miah said that after their draw against Seychelles, the coaching staff inspired them to move forward.

“Losing a point in such a tournament is very disheartening. The players were very disappointed. But the coaching staff inspired us to forget the past and do the next step better, and we did,” Rahmat said.

He added that the outfield at the Race Course Stadium in Colombo is a little heavy because of the sand, but they gave their all to find a result against Maldives.

“The field (here) is a little heavy as it is made with sand. That led to us being tired in the first match. After that match, we decided that we had to give more than our 100 per cent to succeed here. We played accordingly and we managed to get the result,” he said.

Bangladesh will face Sri Lanka in their final match of the group stage on Tuesday.