Home ›› 28 Sep 2022 ›› Sport
Facing a familiar foe in Nepal, Bangladesh national football team failed to make winning a familiar habit as they were downed 3-1 by the hosts in a FIFA International friendly match at the Dasharath Stadium in Kathmandu, Nepal on Tuesday.
Nepal forward Anjan Bista stole the show with a 20-minute hat-trick as his goals pinned Bangladesh back within the first 40 minutes.
Bangladesh striker Sazzad Hossain’s header only managed to reduce the deficit as the men in red and green failed to trump 172-ranked Nepal in any aspect.
The defeat meant that Javier Cabrera’s men will finish the year with only one win as they have no other international fixtures scheduled.
Cabrera’s troops struggled in midfield, where the Spaniard left out defensive midfielder Atiqur Rahman Fahad and brought in Hemanta Vincent Biswas, who returned to the national side following a long-term injury. In addition to that, the defence seemed to be in disarray and showed frailties in aerial combats, from which Nepal scored two goals.
Following a cagey affair in the first 15 minutes, Bangladesh managed to find an opening when skipper Jamal Bhuyan’s curling freekick hit the crossbar in the 16th minute.
That was that for Bangladesh in the first half what followed was only one-way traffic. In the next 20 minutes, Nepal forward Anjan Bista brewed up a storm netting three times to sweep Bangladesh.
For his first, Anjan headed in from a delectable left-footed cross in the 18th minute. Nine minutes later, Nepal took advantage of a scattered Bangladesh back line to double their lead. Bangladesh goalkeeper Anisur Rahman Zico pulled off a save but it kindly fell to Anjan, who was inside the box to find a fitting finish, making it 2-0 for Nepal.
In the 38th minute, Nepal made use of yet another dead-ball situation, this time from the right side. Bangladesh defenders made a meal of their marking system leaving a wriggling Anjan unmarked. The forward netted a flying header to complete his hat-trick as Nepal went 3-0 at half-time.
Bista came close to another in the 51st minute when he went clear of centre-back Tutul Badsha and squeezed a shot on goal that brushed past the far post.
Ten minutes after the restart, a lacklustre Bangladesh managed to find a lifeline, courtesy of Sazzad, who finished the easiest of chances. The goal came largely due to the brilliance of last match’s scorer winger Rakib Hossain. The winger used his pace to go past the right-back and drilled in a cross for Sazzad to head in.
Despite giving Bangladesh an opening, Sazzad fluffed the easiest of headers from a corner in the 69th minute. The striker failed to hit the target from five yards out and Bangladesh’s hopes of staging a comeback died as it ended 3-1.
