In-form forward Mahbubur Rahman Sufil scored a brace as Bangladesh concluded their AFC U-19 Championship 2018 Qualifiers Group B campaign with a dominant 4-0 win over their south Asian counterpart Sri Lanka at Hisor Central Stadium in Tajikistan Wednesday.
The youngsters in red and green could have extended the score-line but failed to do so due to the profligacy of their forward line. Bangladesh scored all of their goals in the first half. Sufil scored in the 38th minute and in the added time of the first half while defender Bishwanath Ghosh and Riyadul Hasan netted one apiece in the 13th and 33rd minute respectively.
Bangladesh head coach Mahbub Hossain Roksy said after the game that his side squandered “four easy chances” but expressed satisfaction with their overall experience from the event, adding that, "The experience the boys gathered will be very useful in future. I am satisfied the way our boys performed."
Meanwhile, team manager Amirul Islam Babu said, "First of all we would like to thank the Almighty Allah for our good results in this championship. Our players played very well. We expected more goals, but still, 4-0 is a good score. I think our U-19 team will bring more good results in future."
The positive aspect Bangladesh can take from the qualifiers is that they conceded only two goals throughout the event, including two clean sheets. The victory saw them end their Group B mission at third place with seven points, while Tajikistan, who beat Uzbekistan 1-0 in the last group match Wednesday, topped the group with 10 points.
Bangladesh's performance and result have improved drastically compared to the same stage of the tournament two years ago in Dhaka where they beat Sri Lanka 2-0 before losing 4-0 against Uzbekistan. This time, after beating Maldives 1-0, they drew 1-1 against host Tajikistan while a 94th-minute own-goal saw them concede a 1-0 defeat against the Uzbeks.
RESULT
Bangladesh U19 4 (Ghosh 13, Riyadul 33, Sufil 38, 45+1)
0 Sri Lanka
POINTS TABLE
Team P W D L GD
Pts
Tajikistan 4 3 1 0 12
10
Uzbekistan 4 3 0 1 16
9
Bangladesh 4 2 1 1 4
7
Maldives 4 0 1 3 -12
1
Sri Lanka 4 0 1 3 -20
1
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