Indonesia tear Bangladesh apart in 9-2 rout

Indonesia completely outclassed Bangladesh 9-2 in Jakarta on Thursday, handing Thomas Dooley’s side a heavy and humiliating defeat in their final ASEAN Cup group match.

The hosts needed a massive win to overtake Malaysia, who had just beaten Singapore 6-0 in the other Group A game. Spurred on by a loud home crowd at the Gelora Bung Karno Stadium, Indonesia threw everything forward and tore the Bangladesh defence apart to snatch a spot in the final on goal difference.

The nightmare started just 11 minutes in when Mitchel Bakker tapped in a pass from Ole Romeny. Nine minutes later, Bakker scored his second with a backheel after Bangladesh keeper Mehedi Hasan Srabon bravely saved two quick shots.

Things got worse for Bangladesh when key midfielder Shamit Shome limped off injured in the 27th minute, leaving a big hole in the middle of the pitch. Rizky Ridho soon made it 3-0 with a sharp strike across the goal.

Bangladesh briefly found a spark of hope in the 36th minute. Shuki Itofusa sent in a lovely cross, and Emon Shahriar headed it home for the team's first goal of the tournament. But the joy did not last even a minute. Bakker completed his hat-trick straight from the restart, headed in his fourth goal in the 42nd minute, and defender Justin Hubner added a sixth just before the whistle.

Down 6-1 at the break, Bangladesh were staring at history for all the wrong reasons. The scoreline brought back dark memories of the country's worst-ever football defeats: a 9-1 loss to Hong Kong in 1975, and 9-0 beatings by South Korea in 1979 and Iran in 1982.

Coach Dooley made changes at half-time, bringing on Minhazul Karim Shadin and Farhaan Ali Wahid to stop the bleeding. Srabon made several good saves to keep the score down, while an Indonesian goal was ruled out for offside.

However, the final minutes were pure madness. Knowing they still needed three more goals to reach the final, Indonesia went on a frantic late run. They scored in the 90th minute and then incredibly struck twice more deep into stoppage time to get exactly what they needed.

In the middle of that late chaos, Farhaan scored a second for Bangladesh in the 91st minute from a brilliant Rakib Hossain cross. It was the England-based winger's first international goal, and it just about saved Bangladesh from matching their worst-ever record defeat, even as they crashed out of the tournament.