New Delhi: The 2011 edition of SAFF Championship started on a rather dull note as the Bangladesh held Pakistan to a goalless draw in the inaugural match of the South Asia’s flagship footballing event played here at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium on Friday.
Bangladesh who defeated Pakistan in both the matches of World Cup and maintains a good record on them looked lackluster and could not live up to the charm. On the other hand Pakistan shrugged off their past experiences and dominated the match outright. They were clinical throughout the match but lack of good finishing could not see them through.
Pakistan came real close to scoring in the 24th minute when a Faisal Iqbal failed to tap the ball in the open nets off a Jadeed Pathan Khan’s cross from the right flank. Again in the 40th a cross from Pathan Khan was wasted and this time the culprit was Saddam Hussian, who shot the ball away from the post. Seeing a string of attack, Bangladesh looked to up their ante and go their first chance to score in the first minute of the first half’s injury time when Ariful Islam header off a corner hit the crossbar and Jahid Hassan had two chances to put the ball past the nets but squandered both the chances.
After the change of ends, the teams looked to create many more chances but nothing could capitalize for the either sides. Bangladesh's Macedonian coach Nicolai Illevski looked happy with performance and said that the motivation that Pakistan felt after their loss to Bangladesh in World Cup Qualifiers saw them put up such an impressive show.
"We have a young team and the boys played well. Pakistan were motivated after their loss to Bangladesh in the World Cup. The first match is always tough and I am happy with the way the boys performed,” said Illevski.
Pakistan’s coach felt that the team played a good football and lack of good finishing hurt them dear. "It was a difficult match for us. We created many chances, but could not win due to bad finishing. Nevertheless, a draw against higher ranked is always good" he said.
Other results:
Maldives 1(Ali Ishfaq, 45+2) dr Nepal 1 ( Sandeep Rai 51)
Samikshan Dutta Choudhury
Indian Sports News