Heartbreak for Bangladesh again as late goal denies them a memorable result against Palestine

It was an all too familiar tale of Bangladesh conceding a late goal to be denied a memorable result against a much higher-ranked opposition in Palestine.

The hosts ended up losing 1-0, their first loss in the Bashundhara Kings Arena, against Palestine in their FIFA World Cup Qualifier on Tuesday.

The loss keeps Bangladesh at the very bottom of the AFC Qualification Group I with just one point from four matches and Palestine strengthen their chances of going through to the next round.

They are placed second with seven points from four games with Australia, who thrashed Lebanon 5-0 earlier on the day with four wins and a perfect 12 points, while Lebanon are placed third with just two points from as many games.

It was a very decent turnout at the stadium as fans for both teams came out on Bangladesh's Independence Day, a government holiday, and there were a lot of Palestine flags and 'Free Palestine' signs.

Having been dismantled in their earlier match 5-0 by Palestine a few days ago much was not expected from the hosts.

But they ended a pretty dull first half without conceding any big chances, while really failing to create much either.

Things came to life in the second half though, especially from the 50th minute onwards as Bangladesh started to deal with the Palestine press and hit them in transition. 

There were bright moments from the attacking trio of Rakib Hossain, Mohammed Fahim and Mojibur Rahman Jony but they were lacking the final touch. 

Palestine started to get a bit restless as time started to run out and had a few great moments themselves, but Bangladesh's keeper Mitul Marma kept them at bay with some brilliant saves.

Unfortunately, Mitul got injured in the process and had to be stretchered out in the 84th minute.

As the clock reached 90, eight minutes of added time were shown, to plenty of groans from the home support, who thought it was too many.

But then Bangladesh would create one of their best chances of the match from a counterattack in the 92nd minute and that resulted in Palestine defender Amid Mahajna getting two yellows for arguing with the referee from Tajikistan, Nasrullo Kabirov. 

This meant Palestine were down to 10 men for the remaining six minutes and one would have thought that was an advantage to Bangladesh.

However, two minutes later, that all came crashing down as Palestine finally breached the Bangladesh defense via a goal from Michel Termanini.

Bishwanath Ghosh, who had a decent game was the culprit here as he played Termanini onside to break Bangladeshi hearts.

Bangladesh head coach Javier Cabrera should get credit for the way he has been getting his side to play some good counterattacking football, especially against 97th-ranked Palestine who are 86 places above the 183rd-ranked hosts.

Despite seeing shoots of progress as far as football tactics and structure go from Cabrera and his men, they will rue old issues, such as conceding late goals to deny them memorable results as massive worries moving forward.

Bangladesh were completely outclassed in their previous meeting on 22 March against Palestine at the 

Jaber Al-Ahmad International Stadium in Kuwait but they put up a much better showing here and that should be taken into account.

They have two more matches remaining in Group I with Australia visiting in 6 June and an away trip to Lebanon in 11 June.