Also read: Bangladesh girls suffer fighting loss against Japan
At one stage, they even took a 2-1 lead, that too with a girl less. The fitness and physical advantage of the Australian girls might have had a hand in Bangladesh’s second half shortfall. Goalkeeper Mahmuda Akter carried on her amazing form and started from where she had left off against Japan in the previous match as her brilliant performance helped Bangladesh concede only a 3-0 loss against the three-time champion. Mahmuda denied Australia’s opening attack, led by Julia Vignes, in the seventh minute. But she failed to stop Laura Emily Hughes from scoring the opener two minutes later. Bangladesh scripted their first attack in the 11th minute through forward Sirat Jahan Shopna but she barely troubled the opponent keeper.
Also read: Bangladesh girls begin with 9-0 loss
Krishna then received her marching order in the 32nd minute when she was shown a straight red card. Defender Shamsunnahar cancelled the lead in the 45th minute, scoring from a penalty, after Shopna was brought down by by Cecillija Matic inside the box. Monika Chakma put Bangladesh ahead six minutes into the second half, driving home a Shopna pass. Australia equalised in the 78th minute through Kyra Cooney-Cross before substitute Sofia Sakalish netted the winner in the 83rd minute leaving the Bangladesh girls stunned. Bangladesh head coach Golam Rabbani Choton said after the match, “I am satisfied the way my girls played against Australia. They worked very hard and tried to show their good performance. "The last 15 minutes of the game our girls made some mistakes which cost us two goals as well as the game.” Choton continued, “We had to play with 10 players in the match, otherwise, if we had played with 11, we could have made the result a different one. But in this tournament, our girls showed great improvement in performance with each passing day.” Earlier, Bangladesh started their campaign with a 9-0 defeat against holder North Korea before conceding a 3-0 loss against Japan in the second match. This was the first time Bangladesh qualified for the tournament. The last time they took part in the event was back in 2005 when they didn’t have to play the qualifiers. The team are scheduled to return home Monday evening.RESULTBangladesh U16 2 (Shamsunnahar – 45P, Monika 51) 3 Australia U16 (Laura 9, Cooney-Cross 78, Sofia 83)
