Palestine loss hard to digest for Cabrera

Bangladesh nearly pulled off a highly improbable feat of escaping with a point to maintain their unbeaten run at the Bashundhara Kings Arena in Dhaka yesterday but ended up succumbing to a 1-0 defeat against Palestine in a Group I fixture of the 2026 World Cup Qualifiers. 

The visitors struck late to leave the men in red and green and around 5000 spectators virtually wounded and beyond repair, and Bangladesh coach Javier Cabrera, too, was left in disbelief after having seen his side hold the fort till the regular time.

However, the Spaniard later accepted the setback against a team ranked 86 places higher than Bangladesh, and one that had recently beat them 5-0 in the away encounter.

"Everyone is disappointed, obviously, though the team was absolutely outstanding today [yesterday]. We are talking about a team [Palestine] who almost beat [eventual] champions [Qatar] in the last Asian Cup. It was huge for the team," Cabrera told reporters at the post-match press conference.

"It was really tough [to accept] that we lost. It is disappointing for all of us, but they [Palestine] have a very high level individually and are more powerful and bigger on the ground," he added.

Coming into the match, Bangladesh made tactical and positional changes, drafting in central defender Shakil Hossain and experienced midfielder Sohel Rana, who replaced his namesake.

Before refusing to concede till the 94th minute, the home side created a couple of chances to break the deadlock. However, as the finish line drew near, Palestine composed a nice attack that saw Islam Batran head down Musab Al-Battat's cross for an unmarked Michel Termanini, who, sneaking into the box from the centre-left, held his composure after losing his marker to beat substitute keeper Mehdi Hasan Srabon with a placing shot.

"It was an action of 90 minutes, where you were fighting in the World Cup qualifying round two, and you understand the pressure and the tension there. You tried your best to finish the game against the 94th ranked team in the world, who have a lot of quality.

"Sometimes you get it [the desired result], sometimes you do not and it is not [down to] defensive organisation or lack of concentration," Cabrera talked about the goal.

Despite the agonising defeat, Cabrera urged all to be proud of Bangladesh, especially the way they played in both home and away games.

"It [the defeat] was something that could happen in football. We should be proud of the team. We knew we needed to start solid, and even when denied ball possession, we weren't feeling much disheartened. We were managing the situation quite well, even though we conceded several corners.

"In the second half, we started good… We had chances to win the match probably. In the end, it was an action that was difficult to defend against a more physical team," said the 39-year-old coach.
Cabrera also hinted that it would not be wise to judge the status of Bangladesh team based on the Palestine outcomes.

"Speaking about the result, it is disappointing because it [the goal] happened at the last minute. I think we really deserved to have some moments to score before they scored. Again, the result won't reflect the performance of the team, and how we have progressed. We shouldn't start making decisions based only on results against strong teams like Palestine, Lebanon, and Australia," Cabrera continued.

"Today [yesterday] we had a lot of positives and there were also many positives in the first game, but it is disappointing not to get any points from both games."

Meanwhile, Palestine coach Makram Daboub gave a shout-out to the supportive crowd and was pleased to fulfil his objective. "I want to thank the people of Bangladesh for supporting us from the gallery, but it was a very difficult match due to the weather. Besides, many of our players have been with the clubs, so we got little time for preparation, but the most important thing is that we secured a full three points from the match."