In their last Group C game on Tuesday in Dhaka, Bangladesh Army FT held Bangladesh Premier League club Fortis FC to a goalless draw. This improved their chances of making it to the Independence Cup quarterfinals.
In their first match, Army held a stronger Mohammedan SC to a 2-2 draw. Army now has two points, one more than Fortis and Mohammedan.
Army made it to the quarterfinals of the season-opening event in 2021 by beating Mohammedan and Muktijoddha Sangsad. If the match between Mohammedan and Fortis on Saturday doesn’t end in a tie, Army will move on to the next round. If not, all three teams will have the same number of points, so goal difference will decide who wins the group and who comes in second.
Army didn’t make it to the qualification round in the last event, which was held in 2022. They lost 4-3 to Bangladesh Navy in the play-off stage, which decided the winner. But with Golam Rabbani Choton in charge, they played much better against Fortis, who had three foreign players on their team.
At the Bashundhara Kings Arena, Choton’s team had better chances to break the tie, but Shahriar Emon, a national reserve, missed two chances and Imtiaz Raihan also missed one.
Chittagong Abahani came back from being down to tie Bangladesh Navy 1-1 in the day’s other match, which was in Group D. This kept their dreams of making it to the quarterfinals alive.
With this win, Bashundhara Kings have secured their spot in the last eight following their 1-0 win over Navy on Saturday.
Even though Navy lost, they can still make it to the playoffs if Kings beat Ctg Abahani badly in the last game of the group on December 1.