Booters ‘completely outplayed’ by Australia

Bangladesh kicked off their World Cup Qualifiers campaign with a thumping 7-0 defeat to mighty Australia in Group I fixture at AAMI Park Stadium in Melbourne yesterday, with substitute Jaime Maclaren stealing the spotlight with a second-half hattrick.

The men in red and green thus suffered their second-largest defeat in World Cup Qualifiers, having previously lost 8-0 to Japan during the 1994 United States World Cup Qualifiers and to Jordan during the 2018 Russia World Cup Qualifiers.

Australia, ranked 156 places higher than Bangladesh in the FIFA Rankings, dominated from the get go until the final whistle. A comfortable 4-0 lead in the first half was followed by three more goals in the 'David and Goliath' battle.

Despite parking the bus from the onset, the charges of Javier Cabrera were unable to display the improvements they desired to demonstrate against a vastly superior side.

Bangladesh had some good recent performances, with the backline playing a crucial part, but stopping the Socceroos proved a daunting task. The home side's deft wingbacks periodically pierced both wings, exposing Bangladesh's error-prone backline.

Before the game, Bangladesh captain Jamal Bhuiyan stated that the current Australia team are stronger than the one that competed in the Qatar World Cup, and Graham Arnold's Australia demonstrated how cruel they were on the field by refusing to relax even after netting their seventh goal in the 84th minute.

Cabrera, on the other hand, had warned his players about set-pieces because of the superior physique of the Australians, who inevitably set the game's tone after Leicester City's towering defender Harry Souttar's easy header off a Charig Goodwin free-kick gave Australia a fourth-minute lead. Afterwards, Brandon Borrello, Mitchell Duke and Maclaren added their names to the scoreboard.

Bangladesh had a handful of counters in both halves, but they were unable to trouble Australia. Cabrera's charges were expected to at least show sporadic moments of ball control, some slick exchanges, and some defensive organisation before the match against Lebanon but they failed to complete three to four passes in the face of Australia's high-press.

"It was a very tough day for the boys, something that was to be expected," Cabrera said.

"We expected to be a little more competitive, and we probably could have performed better in the first half. But we were completely outplayed, and we didn't even show our characters.

"We were more like ourselves in the second half in terms of building up, but there were occasions where the physical, not just technical, but physical superiority [of Australia] was absolutely massive," claimed the Spaniard, adding that his charges are still mentally strong and that the result against Australia will have no bearing on their encounter against Lebanon on November 21.