Mirajul Islam slammed a brilliant hat-trick and steered Bangladesh U-17 football team to the semifinals as group champions thrashing the Maldives by 5-0 goals in their second and last group A match of SAFF U-17 championship on Wednesday.

Apart from Mirajul’s hat-trick with three goals, Nazmul Huda Faysal and Murshed Ali supported with a lone goal each for the boys in red and green, who led the first half by 2-0 goals.

Held at Racecourse Int’l Stadium in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh had to wait a few minutes to take the lead when Namul scored the first goal in the early 4th minute.

Murshed Ali doubled the lead scoring the second goal for Bangladesh in the 38th minute while after the breather it was Mirajul who scored the remaining three goals for Bangladesh in the 74th, 77th and 90th minutes in the one-side affairs.

Earlier, Bangladesh U-17 soccer team got off to a flying start as they thrashed host Sri Lanka by 5-1 goals in their opening group A match held on Monday last.

A total of six teams — host Sri Lanka, Maldives, Bangladesh, defending champions India, Nepal and Bhutan — split into two groups, are taking part in the regional tournament.

The top two teams from each group will play the cross semifinals on September 12 while the final of the tournament is slated on September 14.

All the matches will be held at Racecourse Int’l Stadium in Colombo.

Bangladesh U-17 team: Mohammad Asif, Mohammad Sohanur Rahman, Ismail Hossain Mahin, Parvej Ahmed, Imran Khan (captain), Ashikur Rahman, Siam Omit, Ratul, Sirajul Islam Rana, Chandon Roy, Nazmul Huda Faysal, Swopon Hossen, Sojol Tripura, Saiful Islam, Iftiar Hossain, Samuel Raksam, Mithu Chowdhury, Rubel Shaikh, Mursed Ali, Mirajul Islam, Mohammed Nazim Uddin, Sree Sumon Soren and Moltagim Alam Hemel.