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Bangladesh played out a goalless draw against visiting Afghanistan in the first of their two-match FIFA international friendly series at the Bashundhara Kings Arena in the city on Sunday.

With the match, Bashundhara Kings Arena became the first club venue in Bangladesh to host an international football match.Despite dominating possession throughout the match, Javier Cabrera’s charges failed to break the Afghan defence.

Bangladesh threatened their opponents first in the seventh minute of the game, with forward Rakib providing a cross from the left into the box, but neither captain Jamal Bhuyan nor forward Sheikh Mursalin could do anything with it.

Mursalin and Rakib’s close-range efforts were cleared by Afghan defenders in the 18th and 21st minutes, respectively.

Five minutes later, Afghan forward Mosawer Ahadi and midfielder Noma Walizda’s successive attempts were cleared by Bangladesh defenders Topu Barman and Tariq Kazi from the goalmouth, respectively.

The best chance of the match came in the 54th minute, but Morsalin blasted the ball way over the post with only Afghan keeper Faisal Hamidi to beat after a brilliant square pass from Rakib.

Afghanistan could have taken the lead in the 71st minute, but midfielder Mostafa Azadozy’s headed attempt on a cross by substitute defender Hakim Kahan Niazi was cleared by Bishwanath Gosh from the goalmouth.

Cabrera was happy with the draw, as his team could dominate the game until the 70th minute against a stronger opponent.

‘We dominated well for almost 70 minutes and created chances. We were comfortable at the back of Afghanistan’s defending line,’ said Cabrera at the post-match press conference.

‘We adjusted very well after that [after 70 minutes]... The objective was to face strong challenges, and we overcame them. Afghanistan are a strong team, and they were supposed to dominate us, but we adjusted well in the second half. Definitely, we have kept the same level [as we played in SAFF].’

Afghanistan’s Kuwaiti coach Abdullah Almutairi said, ‘We did not want to concede a goal in the first half and tried to score in the second half... We made three mistakes, and from those, Bangladesh could have scored... I am happy with the team’s performance as our defending system could stop Rakib and Mursalin and also keep closing the playing area for Jamal.’

Bangladesh will play the next match at the same venue on September 7.