Bangladesh at the AFC Asian Cup

Bangladesh is among two South Asian teams, the other being India, to have participated in the AFC Asian Cup. Having qualified to the main phase of the tournament successfully on their first attempt, during the 1980 AFC Asian Cup, held in Kuwait. They failed to win any of their 4 games during the tournament. Kazi Salahuddin and Ashrafuddin Chunnu are the only goal scorers for Bangladesh in the competition.

This was the nations only appearance in the AFC Asian Cup to date and since the late 90s, the country's football has seen a massive deterioration, failing to produce talented players like they did in the late 70s and early 90s.^[1]

Overall Record[]

AFC Asian Cup										Qualification
Year	Result	Position	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA		Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA
1956 to 1968	Part of  Pakistan									Part of  Pakistan
1972	Not an AFC member									Not an AFC member
1976	Withdrew from qualification									Withdrew from qualification
1980	Group Stage	10th	4	0	0	4	2	17		4	1	2	1	7	8
1984	Did not qualify									5	1	0	4	6	13
1988										5	0	3	2	1	9
1992										2	0	0	2	0	7
1996	Withdrew									Withdrew
2000	Did not qualify									4	1	1	2	5	12
2004										2	0	1	1	3	4
2007										8	1	1	6	2	19
2011										AFC Challenge Cup
2015
2019										12	0	2	10	3	41
2023	To be determined									10	1	3	6	4	19
Total	Best: Group stage	1/17	4	0	0	4	2	17		52	5	13	34	31	132

AFC Asian Cup Qualification round[]

1980 AFC Asian Cup Qualifiers[]

In January 1979, the qualifiers for the 1980 AFC Asian Cup began, all the games were held in Dhaka. This was the nations first attempt at qualifying for a major tournament. Nonetheless, their qualifying hopes were left uncertain when they were trashed 3-1 by Qatar. In their final game, Bangladesh faced Afghanistan, in a must win game. The team shocked the whole nation when they stunned the Afghans 3-2, Kazi Salahuddin scored the all important winner during the game and thus helped Bangladesh qualify for the AFC Asian Cup.^[2][3]

The team was placed in Group A, along with North Korea, Syria, China and defending champions Iran. All the group-stage games were held at the Sabah Al Salem Stadium in Kuwait City.

1980 Asian Cup[]

Group A[]

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Iran	4	2	2	0	12	4	+8	6
North Korea	4	3	0	1	9	7	+2	6
Syria	4	2	1	1	3	2	+1	5
China PR	4	1	1	2	9	5	+4	3
Bangladesh	4	0	0	4	2	17	−15	0

Opponents North Korea, 1980 Asian Cup, Kuwait[]

The county's first opposition was Asian giants North Korea. Regardless of coming into the game as huge underdogs, the team played decent attacking football against the Koreans. Bangladesh conceded two goals in a row in the 44th and 45th minutes of the match, both due to blunders from goalkeeper Wahiduzzaman Pintu and the defense. Despite the letdown, the team kept on pressing and following a quick counter attack after winning the ball back from the Korean defense, Bangladesh earned a penalty. Kazi Salahuddin scored the country's first ever major tournament goal from the penalty spot in the 60th minute. However, the Koreans did not let the celebrations last long, when they scored again in the 88th minute after goalkeeper Pintu spilled the ball, leaving an empty net for the Koreans to score in. This did not stop Bangladesh from going on the attack again, and after making a great run, Ashrafuddin Chunnu cut inside to score, making the score-line 3-2. In the end, Bangladesh were not able level the game, even so, they showed great spirit to take on a very strong North Korean team that had qualified for the World Cup only a few years before.^[4][5]

16 September 1980

North Korea	3–2	Bangladesh
44', 45' Kim Jong-man 88'		Salahuddin 60' (pen.) Chunnu 90'

Sabah Al-Salem Stadium, Kuwait City

Opponent Syria, 1980 Asian Cup, Kuwait[]

Bangladesh was also impressive during their second game, held three days later, against Syria. In the 7th minute of the match, Syrian striker scored a goal to give the team the lead. However, Bangladesh had numerous opportunities to equalize, which in the end they failed to do. Even so, during the game the country displayed a organized defensive performance, though they lacked quality going forward.^[6]

19 September 1980

Bangladesh	0–1	Syria
		7'

Sabah Al-Salem Stadium, Kuwait City

Opponent Iran, 1980 Asian Cup, Kuwait[]

During their thrid game, Bangladesh were outplayed by defending champions Iran, and were trashed 7-0. Within 35 minutes into the game, Bangladesh fell 3 goal behind. Their plan of taking Iran head-on failed, as the team were dominated in the midfield during the first-half. Bangladesh managed to keep out Iran, for the majority of the second half, however, the oppositions constant attacking pressure had the Bangladeshi defense exhausted, leading to Behtash Fariba scoring from a corner in the 80th minute. Iran scored again within 2 minutes of the restart, when Fariba again found the net from close range, subsequently completing his quadruple of goals.^[7]

22 September 1980

Bangladesh	0–7	Iran
		Fariba 11', 34', 80', 82' Roshan 21' Barzegari 27', 87'

Sabah Al-Salem Stadium, Kuwait City

Attendance: 2,000

Opponent China, 1980 Asian Cup, Kuwait[]

The last match of the group-stage, saw Bangladesh conceding 6 against China. Hattricks from Shen Xiangfu and Xu Yonglai ended the nations AFC campaign on a disappointing note. However, even though the team failed to win a single game during the entirety of the competition, their performances on the field was fairly satisfactory, considering this was the country's first ever major tournament appearance, only 4 years after the Bangladesh Football Federation was founded.

25 September 1980

China PR	6–0	Bangladesh
Shen Xiangfu Xu Yonglai

Sabah Al-Salem Stadium, Kuwait City

Record by Opponent[]

AFC Asian Cup matches head-to-head record
Opponent	Played	Wins	Draws	Losses	Goals for	Goals against	Goal difference	Points
North Korea	1	0	0	1	2	3	–1	0
Syria	1	0	0	1	0	1	–1	0
Iran	1	0	0	1	0	7	–7	0
China PR	1	0	0	1	0	6	–6	0
Total	4	0	0	4	2	17	−15	0

Goalscorers[]

No.	Player	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Date	Edition	Goals	Ref.
1	Kazi Salahuddin	Sabah Al Salem Stadium, Kuwait City	North Korea	1–3	2-3	16 September 1980	1980	1	[8]
2	Ashrafuddin Chunnu			2–3	2-3			1

References[]