Hamza Choudhury started making impact before his sixth-minute goal and carried on to keep the momentum as long as the midfielder stayed on the pitch.
Bangladesh’s head coach Javier Cabrera was full of praise for the superstar footballer as he said his team perform better when a player like Hamza is on the field.
“Hamza had a very big impact in the first half, definitely,” said the Spanish coach.
Hamza played only the first half and was substituted later.
“Obviously it's visible when a player with the level of Hamza is on the pitch, the team plays better. That's true. The rest of the team performed very well,” Cabrera said at the post-match press conference after his side beat Bhutan 2-0.
Bhutan’s coach Atsushi Nakamura also waxed lyrical about Hamza.
“Not only goal, but also when he has the ball, we can't get the ball from him. He gives Bangladesh's team good discipline,” said Nakamura.
“Hamza coming to Bangladesh is very good news for Bangladesh football.”
The two coaches also talked about the atmosphere of the National Stadium where international football returned after years with full-house stands.
“There's so much great atmosphere, the excitement from the beginning, from the warm-up, and there was quite a lot of people already that came here very early. It was fantastic. I think the players were also very happy,” said Cabrera.
Nakamura said it was difficult for him to control his players from the technical area because of the vociferous support of the home crowd.
“I shout a big voice, but the player can't listen because of the audience's voice. So, it's a very tough situation. I couldn’t control the game,” said Bhutan’s coach.
“Football is very popular in this country. So, okay, it's normal. I have to train the players under this situation, how to decide, how to think by themselves,” he added.
The game was part of the preparations for Bangladesh’s next AFC Asian Cup qualifier fixture against Singapore at the same venue as Cabrera leveled the friendly tie as a “good test’” for his players ahead of the much-awaited encounter on June 10.