Bangladesh have swept into the semifinals of the SAFF U19 Championship 2015 after beating Bhutan comfortably by 2-0 in their first match of the six-nation meet at the ANFA Complex in Lalitpur, Nepal on Saturday.
The young Tigers exhibited a dominating display to salvage all three points after two beautiful goals by Rohit Sarkar and Mannaf Rabby in the first half eased their way to the last-four.
The men in red and green will face Nepal in their last match of Group A on Monday and if they can beat the hosts they will emerge from the group as champions.
Md Ibrahim and Mannaf Rabby, two rising stars from the Bangladesh Premier League, were in the hub of most of Bangladesh attacks.
The duo showed individual skills from the left side but all ended in vein till the first goal came in the 42nd minute.
Bangladesh took some time to be organised and when they were all settled they put two goals in the length of only two minutes. Rohit gave the Tigers the deserved lead with a powerful volley from just outside the box after Ibrahim’s long cross was headed down by Mannaf Rabby.
After failing to control over two same build-ups before, Mannaf succeeded on his third effort to double the lead two minutes later.
Bhutan keeper came out of the box to clear a long ball but failed and Mannaf controlled the ball well inside the box and saw his shot entered into the net in between the baffled legs of a Bhutan defender.
Ibrahim went close to the opponents’ terrain twice in the early second half showing his skills but both flew wide or over the crossbar.
The winger squandered a great chance in the 71st minute to extend the lead when the Mohammedan youngster failed to meet in a cross of Mannaf, only two yards away from an empty net.
Source: Dhaka Tribune
