Bangladesh maintain undefeated streak with Maldives win

Mirajul Islam (number 9) celebrates along with his team mates after scoring his third goal against the Maldives

Mirajul Islam scored a hattrick of goals for Bangladesh to drub the Maldives by 5 goals to nil to remain undefeated in the competition at the South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) Under-17 Soccer Championship at the Race Course Stadium in Colombo yesterday.

Some scintillating performance by Mirajul Islam who was instrumental in scoring the first hattrick of the tournament,  completely hoodwinked their rivals to boot three spectacular goals and to guide his side to reserve a berth in the semi-final on 12 September. 

Bangladesh resumed from where they stopped on Monday, after crushing the Lankans 5-1 in their curtain raiser, came out with brimming confidence. They went all out from the start and were rewarded immensely for their efforts. Nazmul Huda Fayzal broke the shackles in the fourth minute of the match and Murshid Ali increased their lead further with a goal scored in the 37th minute to leave for breather 2-0.

The Bangali Tigers changed tactics and adopted a much offensive approach to increase their goals tally. Mirajul Islam was up to the task and went solo to score three more goals in quick succession in the last quarter of match. 

The Maldives team who had nothing much to offer as they were depleted in all departments will now have to win against the hosts tomorrow. 

At the time of going to press, Nepal were leading 1-0 against Bhutan.