Bangabandhu Gold Cup
Palestine begins tournament in style
Md Anwar Ullah from Sylhet
Palestine began their journey in the Bangabandhu Gold Cup International Football Tournament on a winning note by defeating Tajikistan 2-0 yesterday at the District Stadium of Sylhet. After winning the match, Palestine are strongly in the race to reach the semifinals. Tajikistan are also a strong contender despite the defeat as they won their first match against Nepal.
Even Nepal, the defending champions, are not out of the race. They have a slim chance to book a place in the semifinals. But for that they have to to beat Palestine by a better margin in their last group match.
After Palestine and Tajikistan won their first matches, the last match for Nepal has turned into a must-win situation.
Palestine began deadlock inside 35 seconds of the first whistle. They scored the the fastest goal of the Bangabandhu Gold Cup International Football Tournament since its first edition was held in 1996.
It was the first move of the match after the kick off when Palestine rushed quickly down the right. Abdal Latif set a low cross inside the area and Jonathan Zorilla just pushed the ball into the near post (1-0).
After taking the lead, Palestine kept their domination and put Tajikistan under pressure. But they could not increase the tally in the opening 45 minutes.
Tajikistan, on their part, worked hard, but they could not deal with the physically well-built Palestine players.
After the first half, Palestine put their mind on increasing the margin, but they had to wait for the second goal for half an hour. Palestine captain Abdal Latif, who provided an assist for the first goal, slammed home a left-flank kick of Shadi Shaban with a header in the 75th minute (2-0).
Palestine controlled the rest of the proceedings. Tajikistan launched some counter attacks, but without any result.
Tajikistan suffered a setback when their forward Bakhtior got a bad shoulder injury in the middle of the match. He had to leave the ground for the hospital.
