Bangladesh demonstrated a much-improved performance against Australia only to concede a 0-2 goals defeat in their penultimate joint qualifiers (round 2) match of FIFA World Cup 2026 and AFC Asian Cup 2027 at the Bashundhara Kings Arena on Thursday.

The men in red and green, who suffered a fatal 0-7 goals defeat to the Socceroos in their first-leg match of the four-team Group I in Melbourne in November, had previously suffered big defeats to the same opponents (by 0-5 and 0-4 goals) in Perth and Dhaka respectively in 2015. 

In comparison to their previous three performances, Javier Cabrera’s men displayed better performance in front of their home crowd on this day with compact defence, better ball possession as well as winning a lot of duels.

After keeping physically superior Socceroos at bay for the first 28-minute of the first half, the hosts conceded the first goal when defender Mehedi Hasan Mithu unluckily deflected a speculative long-range ball by midfielder Ajdin Hrustic, off a pass from debutant forward Nestory Irankunda, into his own net in the 30th minute.

Before the breakthrough, the men in red and green goalkeeper Mitul Marma and defenders frustrated Australia with some good saves inside the box, on the contrary, their key forwards Rakib Hossain and Shekh Morsalin created a chance each from counterattacks.

The Socceroos got a big relief when forward Kusini Yengi extended the margin with a header from goalmouth melee, off a perfect long cross from defender Jordan Bos, in the 63rd minute of the second half.

Praising the men in red and green, Australia’s veteran coach Graham Arnold said, “You have to give full credit to Bangladesh players, they are the performers. They worked so hard and they tried their best...We knew it was gonna be a tough game, we knew it was gonna be hard.”

Bangladesh brought defenders Tapu Barman, Md Ridoy, Isa Faysal, Mehedi Hasan Mithu, midfielder Md Sohel Rana and forward Shekh Morsalin into their playing XI while Australia brought goalkeeper Joe Gauci, two defenders Ryan Strain, Jordan Bos, midfielder Ajdin Hrustic and debutant forward Nestory Irankunda in their starting XI.

Bangladesh’s regular skipper Jamal Bhuyan was benched at the start of the game and only came off the bench during the 55th minute of the match after Sohel Rana Jnr was substituted.

“I think we got the objective, the objective was to improve our performance from Melbourne regardless of the result. Extremely well defended the whole game and that was absolutely top level. In the first half, we lacked confidence while we were exhausted in the second half which is normal as they are physically stronger,” said Cabrera.

It was Australia’s fifth successive win in the qualifying tournament while Bangladesh remained at bottom with their previous one point.

The men in red and green will play their last group match against Lebanon on 11 June at the neutral venue – Jassim bin Hamad Stadium in Doha.