Bangladesh made history on Tuesday as they for the first time qualified for the Men’s Junior Hockey World Cup by beating Thailand in a place-deciding game (fifth-eighth) of the ongoing Men’s Junior Asia Cup 2024.
The Bangladeshi lads aged below 21 years beat their Thai counterparts by 7-2 goals.
The ongoing regional hockey competition of the U-21s will provide spots to the top six Asian teams in the upcoming 14th Men's FIH Hockey Junior World Cup, scheduled in December next year in India,.
Bangladesh, who beat Thailand in the place-decider, directly entered at the leaderboard of the top-ranked six-team though they have to play another game to confirm their final rank.
In the day’s other place decider, South Korea and China will lock their horns at the same venue at 4 pm (BST). Bangladesh on Wednesday play against the winners between South Korea and China to confirm their final rank between fifth and sixth.
For Bangladesh, Obaidul Hoque Joy scored two in the 3rd and 39th minutes and Md Abdullah scored twice in the 16th and 49th minutes while Amirul Islam, Rokibul Hasan Rocky and Khan scored one each in the 6th, 34th and 36th minutes.
Thai captain Chueamkaew Kritsada and Phumee Kritsana scored one each in the 30th and 35th minutes to reduce the gap.
Bangladesh have earlier played seven times in the Junior Asia Cup since their first participation in the 1992 edition held in Malaysia where they achieved the highest fifth rank, but the Bangladeshi boys never qualified for the World Cup.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh earlier ended third in the five-team Pool B of the ongoing competition with 5 points from one win against Oman by 3-1, two draws against Malaysia and China by 2-2 and 1-1 goals respectively and 0-6 goals defeat to Pakistan.
Bd-pratidin English/Tanvir Raihan
