In today’s second FIFA friendly encounter at the Bashundhara Kings Arena, Bangladesh battled back from a deficit to draw 1-1 with a superior Afghanistan team. The match was played in Bangladesh.
In the opening match of the day at the same site on Sunday, the players coached by Javier Cabrera were held to a scoreless draw by Afghanistan, a team that is ranked 32 places higher than Bangladesh in the FIFA standings.
Sheikh Morsalin scored an equalizer for the home team with a tap-in ten minutes after Afghanistan’s forward Jabar Sharza gave his team the lead with a header from a well-judged corner from Dutch-born Omid Popalzy, who had previously played in the Bangladesh Premier League for Chittagong Abahani. Sharza was based in Denmark at the time of the goal.
Forward Rakib Hossain played defensive right-back Bishwanath Ghosh on the right side in pursuit of an equalizer. The right-back raced into the box before sending a superb low cross for unmarked Morsalin, who finished the formality to boost his international goal count to three. Morsalin’s goal brought his total to three.
Earlier, Afghanistan dominated the first half of the match thanks to the participation of its eight players who were located outside of the country, but they were unable to expose Bangladesh.
Rakib made a darting run into the box and unleashed a powerful shot that was aimed at the near post, but goalkeeper Faisal Ahmed Hamidi was able to get a hand on it and prevent it from going in. This opportunity presented itself to Javier Cabrera’s squad before the end of the first half.
The sending off of Bangladesh’s assistant coach Hasan Al Mamun and Afghanistan’s head coach Abdullah Al Mutairi, which centered on a foul, was also the highlight of the first half of the match.
After the game was resumed on the soaked field, Bangladesh put on a better performance than Afghanistan did. Following the equalizer, the men in red and green pressed hard for the winner and came close with a couple of chances; however, Afghanistan defenders well-negotiated threats well to eventually share the honor.