Tariq header proves enough

Bangladesh Men’s National Football Team beat Seychelles 1-0, courtesy of a header from centre-back Tariq Kazi, in the first of their two-match FIFA tier-1 friendly match series in Sylhet on Saturday.

The only goal of the game came in the 43rd minute when a free-kick from Bangladesh skipper Jamal Bhuyan deflected off Seychelles Brandon Molle into the path of Tariq, who coolly dispatched the header to grab his maiden goal for the Red and Greens.

However, the biggest moment of the match was when striker Eleta Kingsley came on as a substitute in the second half as he became the first naturalised player to represent Bangladesh.

Eleta, who obtained Bangladeshi citizenship in 2021, had been waiting to wear the Bangladesh jersey since then but faced several obstacles, starting from his documentation not being processed to not getting called up.

However, on Saturday, his two-year wait came to an end as he finally represented Bangladesh. The striker had the chance to mark his debut with a goal as he had a couple of opportunities but neither ended up hitting the net.

Before the match, Bangladesh skipper Jamal had expressed the desire to display good football to the fans and while their game was not great, they still managed to provide a good showing to the 1,679 people present at the Sylhet Stadium.

Javier Cabrera’s men started the game on the front foot, keeping the ball and pressing high up the pitch, sides of the game previously unseen in the national team. However, the end product was missing and Seychelles had created a couple of opportunities, although they missed both.

Bangladesh’s first shot on target came in the 39th minute when Jamal’s free-kick was aimed straight at the Seychelles goalkeeper Alvin Roddy Michel.

Four minutes later, Bangladesh finally broke the deadlock, scoring their first goal at home in around two and a half years.

At the beginning of the second half, Cabrera put Eleta on the field, and 10 minutes into the half, Matin Miah replaced Jamal. Six minutes afterwards, the substitute created a golden opportunity as he sent Eleta through on goal but the striker blazed it over trying to finish it with the outside of his foot, meaning he missed out on a debut goal.

Seychelles then started pressing and almost got a goal in the 87th minute but Don Maxime’s free-kick hit the crossbar and went wide.

A couple of minutes later, Eleta found some space outside the Seychelles box and produced a powerful strike which was parried away by Michel.

In the next minute, Sohel Rana found himself in space in the box following a long throw-in but only managed to hit it straight to the Seychelles goalkeeper.