Bangladesh had the chance to play in the final round of the Asian world cup pre qualifier for the first time, where only top 20 Asian teams will play. That didn’t happen. Lebanon was behind Bangladesh in FIFA ranking, Bangladesh dreamt to beat this war-torn nation.
But there is something to cheer; Bangladesh may be considered as best team among the dropped South Asian teams. Bangladesh is the only nation in this region to win a match in the second round, and they are the only team who scored more goals than they conceded. At first Bangladesh got 3-0 victory on aggregate over Pakistan, and lost to Lebanon 2-4 on aggregate. That means they scored 5 goals and conceded 4 goals.
Nepal lost to Jordan 9-0 but managed to get a 1-1 draw in their home match which was most surprising result in the second round of the world cup pre qualifying round. This second round was featured by some top Asian teams including Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Iran, Iraq, China and Indonesia.