Despite being able to hold Palestine goalless till the fourth minute of the injury time, Bangladesh succumbed to digesting a goal and lost the match at home on Tuesday in the second round of joint qualifiers for the 2026 FIFA World Cup and the 2027 AFC Asian Cup at the Bashundhara Kings Arena in Dhaka.
Defender Michael Termanini scored the match-winning goal following an assist by Islam Batran for the Arab team.
It was unfortunate to lose a match this close. Regardless of having enough capable players on the reserve bench, Bangladeshs coach failed to utilise the opportunity. Also, Bangladesh skipper Jamal Bhuyan who was lately levelled a 60-minute player could not spark for the team on the day.
Although Bangladesh could not win the match, it was considered a better performance compared to the previous match played three days ago in Kuwait.
Earlier, Palestine defeated Bangladesh in a 5-0 match in its home match three days ago, on Thursday, midnight at the Jaber al-Ahmad International Stadium in Ardhiyah, Kuwait City in Kuwait.
So far, these two faced each other eight times. Palestine is currently the 97th in the FIFA World Ranking while Bangladesh is the 183rd.
In 2006 in an AFC Challenge Cup match, Bangladesh and Palestine played a 1-1 tie. After that, Bangladesh could never hold the Arab team again. In the next matches from 2011 to 2021, the match results were 2-0, 1-0, 2-0, 2-0, and 2-0.
While the margin was maximum to 2-0 in those matches, Bangladesh experienced a big 0-5 defeat to Palestine freshly, last week. Now, the 1-0 match seemed to be a good recovery.
On the other hand, at the Canberra Stadium in Australia, the Australian boys celebrated a 5-0 win over Lebanon and secured the top spot in the group with a total of 12 points.
Now, Palestine sticks to the second spot with seven points while Lebanon at the third place with two points and Bangladesh is at the bottom with a single point.
Bangladesh will meet Australia in the next match of the qualifiers on 6 June.
