Substitute Saad Uddin scored in injury time (92 minutes) to rescue visiting Bangladesh in the first leg of the FIFA World Cup and AFC Asian Cup joint qualification round.
The goal helped Bangladesh come from behind to play out a creditable 1-1 draw with the hosts at the Maldives National Stadium in Male City on Thursday.
The men in red and green, despite the absence of three key regular faces, created at least three chances in the game with Fahim alone who saw his efforts went wide, over or hitting the side net.
The home side also had a couple of opportunities in either of the halves including one saved by Mitul to deny Maldives captain Ali Fasir on one-on-one before substitute Nazeem Hassan sealed the winner with an opportunist strike in the 87th minute.
Saad, who can play both as fullback and winger, came off the bench to relieve the growing concern of visitors with a perfect finish from close range after being set up by Rakib Hossain from the left side.
It was Saad’s second international goal after netting his first during a World Cup qualifying match against India at the Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata four years ago.
Earlier, goalkeeper Mitul Marma, defender Sakil Hossain and forward Faysal Ahmed Fahim replaced suspended national trio Anisur Rahman Zico, Topu Barman and Shekh Morsalin respectively in the starting eleven.
Zico, Topu and Morsalin are temporally suspended by Bashundhara Kings for being accused of breaching discipline after the club’s AFC Cup match against Maziya in Male last month.
Bangladesh never beat the Maldives on their home soil in the last 26 years since 2000 where they played 1-1 draw in the Golden Jubilee Tournament in Male.
After the year 2000, Bangladesh faced the Maldives on three more occasions in Male and lost all the matches.
Bangladesh suffered their biggest 0-5 goals defeat against the Maldives in the FIFA International Friendly in 2016 and conceded 0-2 each goals defeat in SAFF Championship in 2021 and in an friendly in 2022, all in Male
However, the recent performance of Bangladesh is encouraging as they won two matches in last four meetings against the Maldives since 2021.
The men in red and green will host Maldives in the return leg scheduled to be held at the Kings Arena in the capital Tuesday.