Bangladesh national football team ended yet another futile FIFA World Cup Qualifiers round-2 campaign when they suffered a crushing 0-4 defeat at the hands of Lebanon in their final Group I match at the Khalifa International Stadium in Doha on Tuesday night.
The defeat means Bangladesh remain winless in the group stage of the World Cup Qualifiers for the last 23 years since their 3-0 win over Mongolia in 2001.
Captain Hassan Maatouk slammed a hat-trick in his final game to give Lebanon their first win in the qualifiers, as well as showing Bangladesh (184th) why Lebanon (120th) are 64 places ahead of Bangladesh in current FIFA Rankings.
With the defeat, Javer Cabrera鈥檚 charges finished at the bottom of the four-team group with a single point from six matches.聽 And in these six games, Bangladesh conceded 20 goals and struck only one that came against Lebanon in a 1-1 draw in Dhaka.
Bangladesh suffered humiliation in all of their three away games against Australia (0-7), Palestine (0-5), and Lebanon (0-4).
In comparison, they have only conceded four goals at home in a 0-2 defeat to the Socceroos, a 0-1 loss to Palestine, and the draw against Lebanon.
Australia and Palestine have qualified for the third round of the qualifiers from the group as champions and runners-up with 18 and eight points, respectively, while Lebanon鈥檚 win over Bangladesh was not enough to progress to the next round as they ended on six points.
Bangladesh, who made their first appearance in the 1986 World Cup qualifiers held in 1985, also finished bottom of the table and winless in the second round of the 2022 and 2018 World Cup qualifiers campaigns with two and one points, respectively.
Despite their 0-4 loss, Cabrera tried to find some solace with the ball possession of his team during the match.
鈥楾he positive today was the way we had possession of the ball鈥ut it was difficult as we made mistakes in the first half and without being able to score from the chances we had,鈥� Cabrera said after the game in a BFF video message.
鈥楾hings started very complicated with the penalty鈥e made adjustments in the second half and pushed the opponents a bit, but the counter attacks killed us. We came into the match with a lot of expectations. It was a tough result, again a disappointing one,鈥� he added.
