Nepal suffered a major disappointment in men’s football of the 11th South Asian Games, losing its opening match 0-3 against home team Bangladesh at the Banglabandhu National Stadium in Dhaka, Bangladesh on Saturday.

The Bangladeshi's were on the offensive right from the start and quickly overwhelmed Nepal’s defense with Mamum Ul Islam scoring the first goal in the sixth minute of the first half.

He then helped Atiqur Rahman find the net at the fag end of the game, stretching the lead to 2-0 in 87th minute. Then substitute Mithun Chowdhury sealed Nepal’s fate by scoring in the injury time.

The match was not one-sided however. Nepal made several attempts to produce a goal, and had few good chances of finding the net, only that the Nepali players couldn’t convert it. The absence of a good striker in the Nepali team was clearly felt throughout the game.

The defeat has placed two-time SAG football champions, Nepal, at the bottom of Group A along with Bhutan which lost to Maldives in the first match of the day. The Maldives and Bangladesh are top of Group A with three points each. nepalnews.com