In a nerve shattering penalty shoot-out Bangladesh defeated Pakistan by 8-7 to move into the final of the SAFF Under-17 Football Championship.
After the 2-2 draw of the stipulated 90 minutes match, Bangladesh converted eight and Pakistan could mark the target for seven times when both sides converted all their five shots, then in the sudden death Bangladesh snatched the victory.
Goalkeeper Imtiaz Rahman denied the number eight shot of sudden death and snatched the result in favoure of Bangladesh.
Bangladesh boys came from a 2-0 down in the thrilling 2-2 draw of the 90 minutes game when they out played their Pakistani counterpart in the tiebreaker to set the final encounter against India, who defeated Nepal by 4-2 in the first semifinal.
Held at the Changlimithan Stadium, Bhutan, Bangladesh, who conceded the first goal on half an hour mark of the game with Pakistan taking 1-0 lead, bounced back strongly in the second half.
Shahabab Ahmed led Pakistan with a close range header on a corner kick on 32nd minute.
Bangladesh though were playing with full domination conceded another goal against the run of the match when Abdul Rehman converted a penalty on 61st minute to lead Pakistan by 2-0.
The youngsters of the Bangladesh did not lost their confidence, as showing brilliant instinct they took became more hostile and playing one-sided game scored two excellent goals in the last 20 minutes to equalised the margin and the match head to tie breaker.
Mithu Chowdhury reduced the margin on 74th minute with a clinical finish of a right-side corner (1-2).
After reducing the margin the boys in Red and Green just squeezed the opponents with constant pressure and equalized the margin in the fifth minute of seven minutes added time.
This time with a combined attack substitute Manik Chowdhury superbly beat the Pakistan defender to level the margin 2-2).
In the tie-breaker Bangladesh scored eight and Pakistan could scored seven when Bangladesh goalkeeper Imtiaz Rahman denied one effort of Pakistan.
