The coach of the Bangladesh national football team, Javier Cabrera, stated that his squad deserved to win over a much stronger Kuwait in their semifinal matchup that took place on Saturday at the Sri Kanteerava Outdoor Stadium in the current SAFF Championships 2023. The matchup took place in Sri Lanka.
A low-driven strike from Kuwait right-back A.A.M.A.AI Baloushi in the closing stages of the first half of extra-time ended Bangladesh’s hopes as they lost 1-0. Cabrera’s troops were able to play out of their skin against 141-ranked Kuwait in their attempt to reach their first final in the competition in 18 years. However, Bangladesh’s hopes were dashed when they lost.
“The victory was rightfully ours. Perhaps the coach of the opposite team will say the same thing. Yesterday, we had one session to make modifications and made a total of three to four adjustments. It is incomprehensible how they carried out the plan. It was great. Because I believe that we had the ability to win, I feel let down. “But proud of their performance,” Cabrera stated in the post-match press conference. “but proud of their performance.”
Sheikh Morsalin might have given Bangladesh the lead in the second minute if he hadn’t received a square ball from Rakib Hossain and then fired straight at the Kuwaiti goalie. Rakib Hossain, on the other hand, was denied the opportunity to take the lead by the crosspiece and then by the goalkeeper Abdul Rahman Marzouq.
“We created chances against a team that is currently ranked first in the tournament,” the commentator said. They finished first in their group and are now undefeated in seven of their eight games. Today was one of those days where nobody had high hopes for their performance, but we were getting close to making it to the final. We had a chance to win the game in the first minute of each of the three quarters.
We were unable to apply more pressure to them in the second half, but I do not believe that they were able to create more scoring opportunities. “There is absolutely nothing to tell the players other than to take positives from the game,” stated Cabrera, who outshined previous managers like Nikola Ilievski, Maruful Haque, Lodewjik De Kruif, Jamie Day, and Oscar Bruzon by leading Bangladesh to the semifinals of the SAFF Championship. Cabrera led Bangladesh to the semifinals of the SAFF Championship.