The Bashundhara Kings Arena made its momentous debut a fitting one as hosts and holders Bashundhara Kings clinched an emphatic 3-0 win against Bangladesh Police while the Sylhet District Stadium witnessed a thrilling 3-3 draw between Rahmatganj MFS and title contenders Sheikh Jamal DC in the Bangladesh Premier League fixtures yesterday.

Robson Da Silva's brace with Eleta Kingsley's strike meant Kings had marked a piece of history in domestic football by becoming the country's first-ever outfit to host their professional football league encounter at their own venue, located in Dhaka's Bashundhara Residential Area.

Spectators enjoy the match, which saw the debut of the venue in the top-tier professional football of the country. Photo: Star

Around two thousand spectators, who could hardly socially distance themselves at the gallery, showed up to witness the keen contest, which saw Police brilliantly hold Kings till 65 minutes. Tempers frayed afterwards when Police's Brazilian defender Danilo Augusto kicked the ball towards Kings' coach Oscar Bruzon, leading to scuffles. The referee remained busy as Police's Romanian coach Aristica Cioaba was cautioned and a bench player saw a red.  

On the greenish and even surface, Kings enjoyed the lion's share of possession. Kings, missing two of their foreign players, adopted a high-line defence and kept pressing for the opener. But the two-time champions could not rattle the backline of Police, who kept counteracting with long balls after foiling Kings' efforts.

Second half saw Bruzon implement a couple of key changes, sending Eleta Kingsley and Mahdi Yusuf Khan, who made the difference by contributing in all three goals in the span of 22 minutes.

Mahdi, in the 66th minute, first penetrated from the right flank and assisted a cut-back for Robson da Silva, who drove a powerful shot home. Robson struck again, this time with a penalty, when Mahdi was brought down by Danilo in the 75th minute.

Twelve minutes later, Mahdi impacted again, releasing a through-ball to the right for Kingsley, who sealed the win for the defending champions as Kings tallied nine points from four matches while Police were stuck on two points.

In the day's other match in Sylhet, Sunday Chizoba and Lancine Toure struck two late goals for the home team Rahmatganj in the dying minutes of the game to gain their first point in the league by denying a victory to Sheikh Jamal, who would be gutted to leave the field with a draw and to find themselves in table's second position, with a point below Kings in four matches, despite cruising into half time at 2-0, courtesy of Solomon King's brace.