Bengaluru (June 22) – Lebanon started their SAFF Championship campaign with a 2-0 win over Bangladesh in the Group B match played today.
Lebanon, one of the two Middle Eastern side in tournament, beat the 2003 Champions Bangladesh with two goals late in the 2nd half.
Lebanese striker Karim Darwich fired the first shot of the game in the 16th minute, but his effort went over the bar.
Bangladeshi keeper Zico came up with a good save in the 33rd minute denying an effort from Mohamad Sadek. Bangladesh’s MD Isa Faysal’s dangerous effort was saved by Lebanese keeper Ali Sabeh.
Lebanon captain Hassan Maatouk came on the 2nd half and got on the score sheet in the 80th minute. Bangladeshi defender Tariq Raihan Kazi conceded possession to Darwich, who sprinted toward the penalty and passed to Maatouk who calmly slotted the ball past goalkeeper Zico.
Lebanon doubled their lead in stoppage time when Khalil Bader scored from a cross by Mahdi Zein.
Bangladesh coach, Spanish, Javier Cabrera stated they knew the Lebanon game would be the toughest in the group stage but they lost with a feeling that they could have got something in the game.
"For next two games (Maldives & Bhutan), We have to win. thats the only way we can go forward" Cabrera Stated
"It is not easy to analyse the total performance. I am disappointed about the result. very positive in the sense, if we are to keep in the level important we could have to left with three points. the game plan was good we know we would suffer in the beginning. and we can come on to the game. we could have made 1-0, we did couple of mistakes led us to this result. proud of every single player. Definitely, we are in the positive direction. We could have got one point also,"
Lebanon's coach, Serbian Alexander Ilic, said for them, the first half was difficult because they gave chance to new players and in the second half they brought in the usual players and got the result.
"This tournament we are using to improve ourselves." Ilic stated.
"It’s too early to talk about (who the favorite is to win the competition). We still have lots of games. We need to check our performance even"
Maldives will play against Bhutan in the second game of Group B tonight.
