Brilliant Bangladesh go down fighting

When the Bangladesh football team set off for Bengaluru around a fortnight ago to play the 2023 SAFF Championship, not many had expected them to cross the group-stage hurdle.

But the men in red and green belied all the pre-tournament connotations with a stunning performance before going down fighting against Kuwait in a captivating semifinal at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium yesterday. 

Bangladesh might have lost the game 1-0, conceding the only goal deep into the first-half of extra time after the regulation 90 minutes had failed to break the deadlock, but the result hardly reflected how gamely Bangladesh fought against their vastly superior opponents till the final whistle. And had luck been on their side, they might have taken the game into the shootout. 

The country's football, which is now a pale shadow of its past vibrant self, hardly draws a crowd. Even when the national team features in any international event, not many take the trouble to tune in to a TV set after having watched those lackluster performances and chronic defeats for years. 

Against this backdrop and the financial scandal that recently rocked the Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF), the stunning performance of the men's team in Bengaluru, the capital and largest city of the southern Indian state of Karnataka, showed some light at the end of the tunnel. 

The profile of the SAFF Championship -- an age-old battle for the South Asian nations -- improved greatly this time around with the introduction of two Middle Eastern nations. 

It also gave teams like Bangladesh an opportunity to rub their shoulders against quality oppositions. Kuwait, who played in the 1982 World Cup, are currently ranked 141st in the FIFA rankings. Lebanon are ranked 102nd. Among the South Asian nations, India, which won the SAFF Championship a record eight times, have the best FIFA ranking at 100th. 

Bangladesh are 192nd in the latest FIFA rankings, but they performed far better throughout the tournament than those rankings suggest. 

The charges Javier Cabrera improved with every passing game since their Group B opener against Lebanon which they lost 2-0. They kept the Lebanese at bay till the 80th minute before a fatal defensive error cost them the game. 

Their next two group-stage games against fellow South Asian rivals Maldives and Bhutan were spectacular come-from-behind scripts that ended in identical 3-1 wins. 

Kuwait’s Abdullah Ammar Albloushi celebrates his decisive goal during extra time of a 1-0 win over Bangladesh in their SAFF Championship semifinal at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium in Bengaluru yesterday. PHOTO: COLLECTED

And their semifinal against Kuwait was just not another game between David and Goliath. 

Kuwait might have had the better share of possession and had more shots at goal, but the game was never a lop-sided affair. 

Bangladesh could have taken the lead in the second minute of the pulsating encounter had young forward Sheikh Morsalin not fired the ball straight at the Kuwait goalkeeper from a one-on-one situation. 

A skilled and technically superior Kuwait side pressed hard for a goal in the first half, but most of their attacks were negotiated by a stubborn Bangladesh defence. And anything that crossed that defensive wall was taken care of by an ever-alert Anisur Rahman Zico, who stood under the bar like a rock. Kuwait made five changes in the first 45 minutes in a desperate attempt to make the breakthrough but to no avail. 

Bangladesh got a golden opportunity to end the evening's duck in the second half, but Rakib Hossain's beefy right-footer from an acute angle bounced off the cross-bar.   

After an absorbing 90 minutes, Kuwait got the all-important goal when their overlapping right-back Abdullah Albloushi found enough space to gallop down the right-hand box before drilling a low right-footer into the far corner of the net. 

But Bangladesh were not ready to die without a fight. They pushed hard in the last 15 minutes for an equaliser but were denied by the Kuwait custodian Abd Al Rahman Kameel, who somehow parried off a low drive from Rakib in the dying minutes.

It was Bangladesh's third meeting with Kuwait. The last time the two teams met way back in the 1986 Soul Asian Games, Kuwait cantered to a 4-0 win against a Bangladesh team that had many star players of that time when domestic football was very popular. 

For the record, Saturday's defeat was Bangladesh's third in a row against Kuwait. But even in defeat, this performance will arguably go down as one of the best in the annals of the country's football history.