Football

Nepal went down 3-0 to Bangladesh in their last group tie on Sunday night to end their AFC U-20 Asian Cup 2023 Qualifiers at the bottom of the five-team pile.

Nepal, who had suffered three defeats going into the tie, were playing for pride. On the other hand, Bangladesh needed a big win to get ahead of hosts Bahrain with a little favour from Qatar.

The Qataris did their bit, defeating the Bahrainis 2-0 on the night to qualify as Group B winners with 12 points from four games. Bahrain, who finished level on seven points with Bangladesh, progressed through to the finals on a better goal difference.

Bangladesh started on the front foot with Mohammad Mojibor Jony opening the scoring in the sixth minute and Mohammad Piash Nova added another to make it 2-0 four minutes later.

Bangladesh’s constant probing put Nepal out of sorts, as tempers flared all around. They were reduced to 10 men in the 26th minute when Ajay Chaudhary received a red card for elbowing a Bangladeshi player. 

Worse was to follow 10 minutes later. This time Nepal lost their captain Ayush Ghalan following a tangle with Bangladesh’s Azizul Haque. 

The Bangladeshi player appeared to use his choice words while extending a hand to grounded Ghalan.  The Nepali captain raised his middle-finger towards Haque. Referee Isha Darwish wanted none of it and gave marching orders to both the players.

Nepal were overwhelmed by their opponents as they continued to struggle in the second half with Sajed Hasan Nijum’s 52nd-minute goal sealing a 3-0 victory for Bangladesh. 

It campaign proved a disastrous outing for the Nepali U-20 side, who had showed lots of promise going into the competition. They conceded 14 goals while scoring only.

After losing 2-0 to Bhutan in the opening match, coach Meghraj KC’s side could hardly emerge from that shock. It was all downhill from there. A 3-1 loss to Qatar was followed by further ignominies in the form of a 6-0 humbling by Bahrain and 3-0 defeat to Bangladesh.