Abahani close trophyless season with win

Abahani ended the 2022-23 season with a 1-0 win against Azampur FC in their final Bangladesh Premier League game at the Shaheed Dhirendranath Datta Stadium in Cumilla yesterday.

However, Abahani, the country's most successful outfit in football, ended the season trophyless – the fifth time since the introduction of the professional football league in 2007 that Abahani failed to win a trophy in top-flight competition.

Nabib Newaj Jibon scored the decisive goal in the 70th minute yesterday to help the Sky Blues finish second in the BPL table with 40 points from 20 matches.

Since the inception of Kings in 2018, six-time professional league champions Abahani have won three domestic titles. Abahani beat Kings in the Federation Cup in 2018 before clinching the Federation Cup and the Independence Cup last season.

Abahani lost the Federation Cup final this season against archrivals Mohammedan while they exited from the semifinal in the Independence Cup.

Interestingly, the gap between Kings and Abahani has increased in the recent times as

Abahani, who were only five points shy of champions Kings in the 2018-19 BPL season, conceded the league by 10 and 15 points in the 2021-22 and 2022-23 seasons, respectively.