National team lose to foreigners
Dhaka, November 12: The SAFF Championship bound Bangladesh national team crashed into a 3-2 defeat against an All African Select XI in a practice match held at the Bangabandhu National Stadium on Saturday.
National forward Emily put his team ahead in the 8th minute off penalty but Nigerian forward Eleta restored the parity in the 30th minute after a combined attack.
The Select XI formed by Dhaka based Africans piled up pressure upon the national team and Eleta shot his team ahead with a nice angular placing shot from the top of the box in the 33rd minute.
Touhidul Alam pulled Bangladesh national team back in the game again in the 56th minute heading an Emily cross that was curved from the right flank.
Bangladesh was reduced to ten men in the 64th minute as defender Rezaul karim was sent off for a severe foul on an opponent forward.
But Lucky another Nigerian sped through the Bangladesh defence and scored the winner in the 86th minute with a cracking left footer.
Coach Nikola Ilevski inserted all his players by rotation and was not a happy man at the end. “Maybe the players were tired as they went through a tough sprint session in the morning but they committed mistakes and did not play as a unit” said the Macedonian.