‘We deserved to win against Kuwait’

Despite a good and resilient performance against Kuwait, Bangladesh was knocked out of the 2023 Saff Championship after losing a late goal in the semi-final. The Bengal Tigers held a tough Kuwaiti contingent scoreless until the 90-minute mark but conceded in extra time to bring their extraordinary journey in the competition to a conclusion.

Following the sad loss, Bangladesh national team head coach Javier Fernandez Cabrera stated that Bangladesh deserved the victory despite being the clear underdogs. 

"The performance from the team has been absolutely outstanding. Again, the consistency they have been showing in this tournament and that level of performance is absolutely incredible. They have done it again. They were better than Kuwait in the semifinal. We have had chances to win this game and qualify for the finals," said Javier

"If we are able to give continuity to these standards, Bangladesh football is going to grow. That's all tough to accept, but we are very proud of the players, the team and the performance of Bangladesh in this Saff Championship," he added.

"The thing is that we created chances against a team that was for everyone the favourite number one of this tournament. They topped the previous group and had been unbeaten for months for seven or eight games. Nobody was expecting us to do what we did today."

Bangladesh have had an incredible Saff 2023 campaign, and have shown a number of positive signs of progress.

"We get that we actually can be consistent. We have the level to compete with higher-ranked teams. We have good talent, we have good senior players, the mix is great, and the bonding. And if we are able to continue this with all the support that we need and with the players being at this level, this should be our level. We should never be below this level," Javier said.

Javier was also asked whether he thought his team was unlucky to have not won this fixture. 

"We were great. The players again, the way we made three, four adjustments yesterday. We just had one session to adjust. And it's unbelievable the way they executed those adjustments. It's absolutely amazing the job that they have done. So yeah, I think we deserved to win today. That's the thing. We are disappointed but proud." he answered.