Regardless of a poor display in the opening half, the Bangladesh Under-23 football team registered a 3-0 victory over first division outfit Bangladesh Police Athletics Club, in the national side’s sixth practice match, at the Rajarbagh Police Ground yesterday.
Jewel Rana netted a brace while Atiqur Rahman Meshu grabbed a goal, all in the second half, to give the national team a hard-fought victory.
The game against Bangladesh Police will probably be the national side’s last practice match at home as the team is scheduled to leave the country on Sunday night for the upcoming 17th Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea.
Talks are already ongoing to hold another friendly match in Singapore before the players set their feet in the northwestern city of South Korea to take part in the men’s football competition slated to get underway on September 15. The Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) earlier wanted to organise a friendly against a Malaysian club but it was cancelled later.
Bangladesh will fly to South Korea via Singapore Airlines and during their transit in Singapore they are planning to play a match there, but, according to sources within the BFF, it is highly unlikely.
The national side’s Dutch head coach Lodewijk de Kruif retained only two players – Meshu and Yousuf Sifat - in the starting eleven which played against the Nepal U-23 team last week and started the game in the worst manner possible going down to 10 men with just 16 minutes into the clock as Abdul Malek received his marching orders.
Bangladesh appeared disorganised and anonymous on the field in the first half and skipper Mamunul Islam came off the bench following Malek’s straight red card to bolster the attack.
“Only two players from the friendly against Nepal played in the starting eleven today (yesterday). We played better in the second half and scored,” said Mamunul after the game.
“We played against Nepal four days ago. The players are working hard to regain their form,” added Mamunul.
The visitors tried to script a comeback after resumption and it was Jewel who broke the deadlock 10 minutes into the second half with an angular shot. The Brothers Union forward notched the second with a header in the 75th minute before another header from Meshu, who scored a hattrick against Bangladesh Army, extended the lead to 3-0 three minutes later.
The Bangladesh U-23 side earlier played two matches each against the Nepal U-23 team and Bangladesh Army and one against BFF Eleven losing just once against Nepal in Sylhet.
Bangladesh will begin their Asiad campaign against Afghanistan on September 15.