Bangladesh's Saff dream shattered after 1-0 defeat to Kuwait in semifinal

Bangladesh's dream run in the Bangabandhu Saff Championship 2023 ended with a hard-fought 0-1 defeat at the Kanteerava Stadium in Bengaluru on Saturday as Kuwait progressed to the final. With this, Bangladesh's dream to win the competition after 20 long years have been shattered. 

Al Bloushi's goal in the extra time was the difference maker in the nervy semifinal after the match finished 0-0 at full time. He put the Arab side in front as the right back made an overlapping run to hit the shot on target from a first-touch finish. The late goal undone the heroics of Bangladesh goalkeeper Anisur Rahman Zico, who made more than 10 saves to keep Bangladesh in the game in the first 90 minutes.

Bangladesh will exit with their heads held high.They put up a valiant fight against Kuwait, who are 51 places ahead of Bangladesh in Fifa rankings. Even though Kuwait dominated the possession (71%), Bangladesh had their fair share of clear chances but failed to convert any of them. 

They had 12 shots in the game, six of them were on target. Meanwhile, Kuwait had 18 attempts at goal having 11 of them on target.

Bangladesh's best chance came very early for Bangladesh in only the second minute of the game through Sheikh Morsalin who missed an open chance in the box. Another chance arrived after the interval with a link-up play between Morsalin and Rakib Hossain, who was inches away from breaking the deadlock in the 61st minute after his shot from a narrow angle struck the bar.

The extra time saw Kuwait come out with added intensity but goalkeeper Zico stood tall as the Bangladesh No 1 pulled off a number of brilliant saves.

There was a fight in the middle of the pitch between both the set of players and staff after the referee blew the final whistle. It remained unclear what trigerred the fight but it seems Bangladesh players and fans were not happy with the refereeing during the match.