Bangladesh beat Maldives 2-1

Bangladesh ended their 18-year winless streak against Maldives with a 2-1 win in their second match of the Mahinda Rajapaksa International Tournament in Colombo today.

Jamal Bhuiyan and Topu Barman – the two senior-most members of the team – scored a goal each as the men in red and green registered their first victory over the Red Snappers since 2003 – with all four meetings in the meantime ending in Maldives' favour.

Jamal scored the opening goal on 12 minutes with a tap-in following a throw-in from Rahmat Mia but Bangladesh conceded the equaliser on 33 minutes, with Ibrahim Aisam finding the net following a corner from Ali Ashfaq.

But even as Bangladesh remained on the backfoot for large part of the game, Topu stepped up to score the winning goal from a spot-kick in the 87th minute after substitute Jewel Rana was brought down inside the box by Maldives goalkeeper Ali Naajih.

Bangladesh, who started the campaign with a frustrating 1-1 draw against Seychelles three days ago, are on top of the table with four points. They will play their last round robin match against Sri Lanka on Tuesday. The top two teams will play the final on November 19.