‘They are no robots’: Dooley shields goalkeeper Srabon after late error costs Bangladesh

Bangladesh coach Thomas Dooley refused to blame goalkeeper Mehedi Hasan Srabon for the mispass that led to Pakistan’s late winner in the SAFF Championship 2026 semifinal at the National Stadium on Saturday.

In the 86th minute of the match, Srabon passed the ball to a Pakistani player, who gave a swift pass to Arshad and the forward slotted the ball home.

Asked in the post-match press conference if he had spoken to Srabon about the error, Dooley said: “I haven’t asked him. You can imagine when something like this happens, you’re losing the game in a game that you want to win and everything is looking positive.”

“He’s also a young player and he also made some mistakes. Like I always say, they are no robots. They have a brain and they have also pressure.”

He said any goalkeeper could have made that mistake and refused to blame a single culprit.

“It’s very difficult to say you blame it on one person or something like that. There are multiple things falling into place and it didn’t work out today for us.”

Dooley said the late goal left his players stunned: “You get in the 86th minute a goal against you, that’s a shock. As a human being, you cannot handle it like this.”

He said victory would have eased the road ahead: “If we would have won this game, then I think it would be a much easier game in the final against India than against Pakistan.”

The German coach admitted Bangladesh never really got into the game, with Pakistan putting them under pressure from the beginning.

“We made one or two mistakes and you want to do it better, and it doesn’t work out. You do another one, try it again, it doesn’t work out, and then you get nervous,” he said.

“You could see there were so many passes that didn't arrive to our player. They were very quick, they could read that very well in the body language that we had.”

He also pointed to the physical and mental demands of the match, saying Pakistan had more time to recover and appeared fitter.

“When you see how many of our players are cramping up, that is a sign that your body is not ready for that kind of a game again,” he said.

“They were quicker, they were a little bit more fit, they could run a little bit more, maybe because of the five days they had a break.”

Dooley said the pressure of playing such an important match in front of a home crowd had affected his young players, with mistakes making them increasingly nervous.

“You make the first mistake and they get a chance. You make another, you want to do better, you make another mistake,” he said, describing the pressure on his players.

The late goal left Bangladesh stunned, with Dooley saying his players could not immediately recover from conceding in the 86th minute.

“You get in the 86th minute a goal against you, that's a shock. As a human being, you cannot handle it like this,” he said.

Asked about Bangladesh's standard and their failure to reach the final despite having several quality players, Dooley said the team was still developing.

“The way that we played last game, that's how we wanted to play today. The passing, the quick passing, one-two touches, switching the side. But sometimes you play against a team, you cannot tell me that Pakistan was a better team than Sri Lanka. That's for sure,” he said.

He added that Bangladesh needed to keep working on their passing and bring in new players to improve the squad.

“It's a development. I'm looking forward to develop even more, getting new players in, getting players in to learn the stuff that we need,” he said.

“If we would have won this game, then I think it would be a much easier game in the final against India than against Pakistan,” Dooley said.