Bangladesh's bid to play the final of the SAFF Championship got off to a positive note as they handed a single-goal defeat to Sri Lanka in the opening match of the regional football extravaganza at the National Football Stadium in Male yesterday.

Central defender Tapu Barman converted a penalty in the 56th minute to separate both sides in a match where Bangladesh had the upper hand throughout.

The strike from the Man of the Match Tapu was good enough to give his side the winning start, however, the margin of victory could have been widened had the likes of Rakib Hossain, Biplu Ahmed, Saaduddin not squandered a few scoring chances against a team who played with ten men for over 40 minutes.

On a rain-soaked ground with rousing expatriate spectators cheering from the stands throughout the 90 minutes, the men in red and green never felt like playing away from home.

Head coach Oscar Bruzon apparently drafted the players, who had featured in the starting eleven from their respective clubs in the Bangladesh Premier League, in his own starting eleven. And his charges did not disappoint the interim coach in terms of ball possession as they had good exchange of passes from the outset of the game and launched attacks from both flanks.

There had been an apprehension regarding Sri Lanka's expatriate forwards players – England-based Marvan Hamilton and German-based Ahmed Waseem Razeek, who however could not pose any real threat in the match, even though a couple of moves from Waseem had the Bangladesh defenders in a spot of bother.   

Left-winger Rakib Hossain was in his usual elements and whipped a couple of crosses but left-winger Jewel Rana, top scorer among locals in the domestic league, looked nervous throughout the first half before Saad Uddin replaced him to inject some pace from the left flank.

Right-back Bishwanath Ghosh was excellent as usual. His long throw-in wreaked havoc inside the Sri Lankan box and Tapu Barman almost capitalised one to break the deadlock in the ninth minute. Tapu claimed a hand-ball after his drive was blocked by a Sri Lankan defender but the referee had turned it down.

Bangladesh tried to penetrate the Sri Lankan high-defence line by keeping the ball on their feet, but were not decisive enough. Captain Jamal Bhuiyan drove wide once before Waseem broke free from the Bangladesh backline in the 37th minute but Tariq Raihan Kazi intervened at the cost of a corner.

Following a fluid exchange of passes, Tapu came close to giving Bangladesh a lead before the interval but his close-range header off a Yeasin Arafat cross was brilliantly saved by Sri Lankan keeper Sujan Perera.

After resumption, Oscar made three changes that added pace in the game, which led to the creation of more scoring chances in the second half.

Bangladesh could have faced trouble when Queens Park Rangers forward Dillon De Silva fielded as a substitute but the backline kept him inactive to make sure Bangladesh got off to the best possible start.