United News of Bangladesh

Bangladesh booked their place in the SAFF U-17 Championship final defeating Pakistan 2-0 in Thursday’s first semi-final at Colombo Racecourse Ground. The defending finalists struck twice in the space of a minute in the first half to seize control of the match. Nazmul Huda Faisal opened the scoring before Apu Rahman doubled the lead moments later. This sudden, overwhelming flurry of goals in the opening minutes effectively decided the contest, leaving Pakistan with a steep mountain to climb for the remainder of the game. Bangladesh, who advanced to the last four as group champions, began aggressively and capitalised on a costly blunder from Pakistan goalkeeper Samar Razzak in just the third minute. Razzak’s poor throw gifted possession to Apu whose misdirected pass ricocheted off a defender and fell to Faisal. With the keeper stranded, Faisal slotted into an empty net. The momentum carried forward immediately, as Apu made amends with a sharp strike that pierced through two defenders and slipped past the diving Razzak to make it 2-0. In the second half, Bangladesh focused on maintaining their lead, while Pakistan failed to stage a comeback. The win brings Bangladesh within touching distance of their first-ever title in this age category. They will face the winner of the second semi-final between India and Nepal in Saturday’s final.

Bangladesh U-17 team were eliminated from the six-nation SAFF U-17 Championship losing to defending champions India 2-1 in the first semifinal at the Racecourse International Stadium in Colombo, Sri Lanka on Monday.India will play the final on Wednesday (Sept 14) against the winners of Group B champions Nepal and Group A runners-up and hosts Sri Lanka, who were scheduled to face each other in the 2nd semifinal on Monday night.After a barren first half in the day's match, Gangte scored both the goals for India in a span of only eight minutes--first in the 51st minute and 2nd in the 59th minute (2-0). Also read: AFC U-20 Asian Cup: Bangladesh hold stronger Bahrain to a goalless drawMirajul Islam, who made a hattrick in the previous match against the Maldives, scored the lone goal for Bangladesh in the 63rd minute from a penalty.Earlier, Bangladesh smartly booked a seat for the semifinal as the Group A champions with all-win record securing full six points from straight two matches outplaying hosts Sri Lanka by 5-1 goals in the first match and crushed the Maldives by 5-0 goals in their 2nd and last group match. Also read: SAFF U-17: Bangladesh to play holders India in first semifinal on MondayHolders India managed a semifinal berth as the Group B runners up securing three points from two matches after beating Bhutan by 3-0 goals in the first match and lost to Nepal by 1-3 goals in the last group encounters.