& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

Enamul fires hosts into semifinals

Sports Reporter
Bangladesh progressed to the semifinals of the Bangabandhu SAFF Championships as they beat Sri Lanka 2-1, courtesy of a brace from their in-form striker Enamul Haque, in a thoroughly entertaining encounter at the Bangabandhu National Stadium yesterday.
Bangladesh emerge champions of group B with seven points in three outings while Sri Lanka finish second with six in their three. Bangladesh will face one of Maldives or India depending on the result of their game today.
This win is a revenge of sorts for Bangladesh as they had lost their previous two encounters against Sri Lanka, the last one coming in the 2008 SAFF Championship in Colombo where they were beaten 1 -0 in the last group match to bow out of the tournament.
This time though, Bangladesh needed only a draw in this match to advance, however they played for a win as they went for broke right from the beginning.
Die 2003 champions made two changes to their starting eleven from bringing in Zahed Parvez and Atiqur Rahman in a bid to strengthen the midfield that struggled both physically and
SEE PAGE 7 COL 7 FROM PAGE 1 technique-wise against the strong Pakistanis.
Sri Lanka rested six players from their previous game.
The changes made by Bangladesh brought a positive approach; they played the game with a more fluid attacking brand of football that brought the 25,000-strong crowd to their feet on a cool evening at the Bangabandhu.
And it took Bangladesh only eight minutes to go ahead when their two more skilful players, Mehdi Hasan Ujjal and Zahid Hasan Emily played a neat one two between them in the Sri Lanka half before Ujjal provided a minus for Enamul Haque to tap in and give Bangladesh a deserved lead and bag his third goal in as many matches.
Bangladesh came close to doubling their margin on the 20th minute after Emily had taken the ball brilliantly down the left and released a cross for advancing Zahed Parvez who put a first time volley just over the bar.
Eleven minutes later, defender Rajani Kanta Barman found himself in an uncharted position in front of the Sri Lanka goal, but he fumbled and failed to get any contact on an inviting cross from Ujjal with just the keeper to beat.
Bangladesh goalkeeper Aminul Haque was hardly called into action in the early exchanges of tlie match. But he could not stop Sri Lanka from finding an equaliser, however much against the run of play on the 39th minute, when Channa fired in a 25-yard free-kick that took a
deflection off the wall and evaded the diving Aminul to nest itself at the right corner of Bangladesh goal.
Sri Lanka sat back a little and tried to reduce the pace of the game in the second half as Bangladesh grew more and more desperate for another goal. Bangladesh coach Shantoo brought on a Shahedul Alam taking off another midfielder Mehdi Hasan the 61st minute. And that proved to be a master trick as Shahed made his presence felt no more than a minute later when he picked out Zahed Parvez on the right flank put in an inch-perfect cross over the keeper for the wary goalpoacher Enamul's who obliged with his fourth of the tournament.
And Shantoo didn't let his charges sit back though on a 2-1 lead, as he followed with another substitution. Emily, who was a doubtful starter for the match and had a minimal impact on the game, made way for the other striker Mithun Chowdhury. Bangladesh's two-goal hero and the tournament's topscorer Enamul Haque was also taken off with just a few minutes to go for the final whistle to keep him fit for the rest of the tournament. Bangladesh made a few more scoring opportunities towards the end, the substitute Mithun thought he scored a goal in the 85th minute after being set up by Zahed Parvez, but his effort was ruled as off-side.
As the final whistle blew, the crowd burst a loud cheer and the players celebrated banishing their nightmare of Colombo one year ago.