How did Hamza play in the first match?
Bangladesh 0 : 0 India
At least Bangladesh coach Javier Cabrera knows how dangerous Sunil Chhetri is. It seems that the coach explained it well to Hamza Chowdhury before entering the field. Hamza also fulfilled his duty to the letter for the entire 90 minutes. Hamza kept this experienced Indian forward bottled up throughout the match and played the entire field.
Cabrera made Hamza the starting eleven today at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium. This player, who played in the Premier League for the first time for the country, wore the red number 8 jersey. Although he is used to playing in the defensive midfield position, his position in the debut match for Bangladesh was central midfield. Although he had not played much in this position before in his career, Hamza squeezed himself. In addition to creating plays, Hamza is also adept at blocking the opponent’s attacks, winning the ball and passing. Defense, midfield and attack – Hamza basically did the work of building bridges in these three areas by understanding the time. Because of this, he had to run a lot all over the field. Sometimes he controlled the game in central midfield, sometimes in center back, and sometimes he also did the work of marking the opponent’s striker Sunil Chhetri. Not only Chhetri, but the others could not escape Hamza’s keen eye. For example, in the 26th minute, India’s Subhasish Bose attacked from the left flank. Hamza ran and won the ball from him. Otherwise, Subhasish could have created danger by taking the empty wing. Hamza created a total of 3 goal opportunities in the first half. In the 10th minute of the match, Hridoy could not use it even though he got the ball into the box from his corner. In the 40th minute, Hamza stood on the Bangladesh goal line. The aim was to keep Sunil Chhetri in sight. In the end, he did it successfully. Hamza blocked the ball that floated from the corner or the flying cross before Chhetri could reach it. Hamza took all four corners that Bangladesh received in the first half. He has been Bangladesh’s hope from set pieces or dead balls right from his debut match. Two of the four corners that Hamza took created scoring opportunities, which the Bangladesh forwards could not take advantage of. The second half saw the intelligent and dynamic Hamza. For example, in the 47th minute, left winger Liston Colacho attacked from the left wing. Rahmat Mia tried to stop him from behind, but he could not. The left wing was empty. Realizing the danger, Hamza ran from a long distance and tackled Colacho and threw him away. Looking at it with the naked eye, it seemed that he could see a yellow card. But the Lebanese referee Hussein Ehia did not blow the whistle because the tackle was perfect. Then, in the 58th minute, Chhetri received the ball from a corner into Bangladesh’s box. Hamza jumped and cleared the ball before his head. This ‘game sense’ has rarely been seen in Bangladesh’s games in the past. Four minutes later, Hamza stood in front of Chhetri again. He did not allow him to take a shot on the post. 10 minutes before the end of the scheduled time, Hamza was seen in a different role. This time he attacked. However, he did not get the help of his teammates and went down. Hamza ‘cleared’ the ball from Bangladesh’s box twice 4 minutes before the end of the scheduled time. Hamza saved Bangladesh from danger twice in the added time. Another thing is clear, after the break, the Bangladesh and Indian players were a bit tired. It was clear from the running that it was quite difficult. But looking at Hamza, it seemed that nothing had happened. He just did his job with a cool head. He ran all over the field. He also had a smile on his face.
But that smile did not turn into a smile of victory after the draw. Even though Hamza played well alone, Bangladesh wasted one goal after another. That is why he did not only win in his debut match for the national team.
