Ananta Tamang scored the winner for Nepal in the last moment of stoppage time for home team that marched into the semifinal with cent percent winning streak in the group of three teams. Bangladesh also made to semifinal as group runners up.Earlier, Nepal came from a goal down to cancel an early lead of the visiting team. Anjan Bista converted penalty in the 18th minute after Rohit Sarkar had put Bangladesh ahead in the 11th minute.
During their first matches, Nepal had defeated Bhutan 3-1 and Bangladesh overcame Bhutan 2-0. Nepal will now meet the runner up of group A in the semifinal to be played on Thursday and Bangladesh meets group runner up on the same day.
Nepal netted the winner in the third minute of four-minute injury time after Ananta's header from the crowded zone deflected at Bangladeshi player Md Tutul Hosain Badsha in his bid to defend it. Anjan had collected the freekick from Sunil Bal.
Earlier, Bangladesh had taken a lead in the 11th minute through Rohit Sarkar at the far post from the zone after he was left unchallenged in an acute pass of Md Abrahim.
Anjan hit the equalizer to the delight of home team seven minutes later after Biswas Shrestha earned a penalty for Nepal. Mohammed Shalauddin handed Biswas Shrestha's left flank cross inside the danger zone prompting referee R Venkatesh to award the penalty.
The victory and top finish in group, however, could not satisfy Nepal's coach Bal Gopal Maharjan with the performance of his side.
"Although, the outcome is appreciable I am not satisfied with the team's performance. The boys did not play according to plan. We failed to hold possession over the ball in the first half and our midfielders as well as defenders were under pressure," said Maharjan, who warned of a difficult situation in the semifinals with such performance. "We must improve in the semifinals to fetch satisfactory results," he said.
Nepal started in an offensive note since the onset and made frequent goal charges. Unlike Nepal, Bangladesh came up with few strikes on goal but the upfront line up always created pressure against Nepal with quick and smooth attacks.
Nepal tested Bangladeshi goalie Anisur Rahman as early as the second minute when he punched Anjan's header to safety in a freekick taken by Sunil Bal. The custodian also denied Akash Thapa's scorcher before sending Bimal Gharti Magar's header from the cross bar to safety in the 16th minute.
Nepal wasted scoring chance in the 25th after Bishwas was denied by goalie Anisur and Ananta's strike in the rebound was defended by Bangladeshi defender.
Bangladesh's Mohammad Ibrahim's long range shot smashed the woodwork in the 21st minute and Nepal's goalkeeper Sojit Gurung denied the same player during half an hour mark.
Bangladesh came up with offensive approach at the start of second half but failed to achieve target. Bangladeshi fired above bar in the 51st minute.
Kamal Shrestha wasted scoring chance in the 53rd while Bimal's effort could not meet target in the 74th and 88th minutes respectively.
Bangladesh's coach AKM Saiful Bari Titu expressed satisfaction with his side's performance. "We wanted to win the match and we also had chances for that though we could not capitalize them. However, we were able to exert pressure on the home team. We added strikers in the second half and reduced the number of defenders which cost us the match," he said.
Meanwhile, Nepal skipper Bimal Gharti Magar said that his side failed to match performances as that against Bhutan. However, he vowed to come up with improved performance in the next encounter.
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