Photo: Collected
A brilliant hattrick by captain Hassan Maatouk guided Lebanon to crush Bangladesh by 4-0 goals in the last Group 1 match of the Asian Qualifiers for the FIFA World Cup Football' 2026 at the FIFA World Cup venue, Khalifa International Stadium, Ar Rayyan in Doha, Qatar Tuesday (11 June) night. With the day's embrassing defeat, Bangladesh not only completed their six home and away basis group matches winless, but also finished at bottom in the four- nation fray securing only one point, after playing 1-1 with Lebanon in home match in Dhaka last November.
In the day's match, the war-torn Arabian nation Lebanon comfortably dominated the first half 2-0 goals with frustration of touring Bangladesh. Captain Hassan Maatouk made a hattruck scored three goals in the 5th, 49th and 60th minutes. Maatouk put Lebanon ahead in the very 5th minute from a penalty (1-0). Lebanon got the spot kick when Bangladesh defender Shakil Hossain fouled opponent booter in the danger zone and Hassan Maatouk did no mistake to corvert a penalty.
Midfielder Nader Mattar doubled margin in the added time of the first half (45+2 minute) by a placing shot from goalmouth melee (2-0). Midfielder Hassan Maatouk scired his 2nd and 3rd goal for Lebanon in the 49th minute (3-0). He completed a hattrick in the 60th minute silencing few Bangladeshi fans at the stadium (4-0).
Bangladesh, which displayed a respectable performance against six time World Cup playing Australia in their home match in Dhaka last Thursday (6 June) to concede a narrow 0-2 goals defeat, failed to perform their usual show and were outplayed in every departments to suffer huge a defeat
Bangladesh captain Jamal Bhuyan, who loud his voice and said, "Our target is to earn three points (from Lebanon), and we believed that we will be able to get three points" and Bangladesh coach's high hope of beating Lebanon, atleast to earn one point from the match, finally went in drain.
Earlier, Bangladesh suffered 0-7 goals defeat against World Cup playing Australia in their away match, drew 1-1 with Arabian nation Lebanon in the home match, suffered 0-5 defeat against Palestine in their away match in Kuwait and conceded a shocking 0-1 goal defeat in the dying moment against Palestine in their home match in Dhaka.
Messenger/Hasan
