Bangladesh receive a 7-0 drubbing against mighty Aussies
The difference of ranking between the sides was vast and that was translated in the final result as Australia thumped Bangladesh by 7-0 in their World Cup Qualifier match at the AMI Park of Melbourne on Thursday.
Substitute player Jamie Maclaren scored a hattrick, Mitchell Duke a brace while Brandon Borello and Harry Soutar registered one goal apiece during the goal fest.
If Bangladesh had any hope before the match to engulf the much higher ranked side, just in the four minutes into play they understood even the difference between the physical heights of the two sets of players was too much.
Soutar, a 198-cm giant, who plays as centre-back for Leicester City, headed the ball home from a free-kick as Bangladeshi players literally stared into the sky with bewildering looks.
Despite that early goal one may start imagining an impossible fight with David and Goliath as the diminutive men and green had their best spell for the next half an hour in the match.
Rakib Hossain somehow entered into the Aussie area from a Jamal Bhuiyan long through but all he could do was give a slight test of skill to the hosts defender. Goalkeeper Mat Ryan, a former Arsenal and Brighton star, however, did not have to give any test whatsoever in the whole match.
And at the same time Bangladeshi defenders could somehow save their net for about fifteen minutes before Barello scored the second. Conor Metcalfe made an eye-catching cutback to break the offside trap set by Javier Cabrero and Barello did the rest.
And with that the floodgate opened. Duke scored the third goal 17 minutes later when he headed the ball home from a Barello cross and quickly made it 4-0. The same duo was in act as Barello hit the base of the post but Duke was in the right place at the right time to send the ball into the bottom right corner of the net.
The Australian coach pulled off Duke in the break and denied him a hattrick chance but substitute Maclaren did not miss it.
He started with a tap-in in the 48th minute when he got a cross from Jordan Jacob. Doubled it in the 70th minute. Bangladeshi custodian Mitul Marma parried a Burgess shot but Maclaren was there to slot an easy one. He completed his hat trick in the 84th minute as he got a long ball deep into the box from Miller to do the rest.
Mitul, despite the ravage, somehow found a rare moment of pride in the very last minute of the game. The Bangladeshi goalkeeper saved the penalty taken by Massimo Luengo to do something worthwhile.
The result was somewhat expected and Bangladesh are expected to face some drubbing in their remaining matches in group I, where Palestine and Lebanon are other two teams, but the moment of Marma could make them spirited for better shows in the next encounters.