Bermuda 1 Belize 1

Captain Dale Eve was disappointed at his side’s failure to take their chances after Bermuda were held to a disappointing draw by Belize in the Concacaf Nations League at the Flora Duffy Stadium.

Having been fairly comfortable throughout, the home side looked on course for all three points courtesy of Kane Crichlow’s first-half opener, only for Belize to snatch a share of the spoils through substitute Eldon Reneau’s penalty with 15 minutes remaining.

After passing up an abundance of chances to put the result beyond doubt before the equaliser, goalkeeper Eve cut a frustrated figure, with Bermuda missing the opportunity to go level on points with League B group C leaders French Guiana, who beat St Vincent & the Grenadines 3-2 a day earlier.

“It is a very frustrating evening,” said Eve, who was rarely called upon throughout the match.

“We just don’t take our chances. We created enough, but we didn’t take them and we were punished.

“We seem to just have an issue with being able to kill teams off. A one-goal lead is never enough to rely on. We need to find a way of taking our chances, scoring more goals and see games out.

“We can’t rely on going into half-time with a one-nil lead and hope it is enough to come away with a win.

“Unfortunately this feels like a defeat in some ways because we should have taken all three points. However, their goalkeeper was on fire to be fair to him and it just didn’t go our way.”

Head coach Michael Findlay made two changes from the team that beat the same opposition 1-0 just five days previously with Roger Lee coming in for the suspended Danté Leverock at the heart of defence and Lejuan Simmons replacing Liam Evans at right wing back.

Bermuda started on the front foot and came close to breaking the deadlock in the seventh minute. Crichlow weaved his way into the area before teeing up Jai Bean, who shifted the ball to his left but saw his driven effort saved well by Charles Tillett.

Belize had their first sight of goal in the eighteenth minute but Micheal Salzar’s strike from outside the area sailed harmlessly over Eve's bar before the goalkeeper was finally called into action in the 36th minute to turn Carlos Bernandez’s effort around his left-hand post.

However, just a minute later it was Bermuda who broke the deadlock as a flowing move down the left ended with an inviting low cross across the box narrowly missed by Jai Bean only for the ball to end up at the feet of Justin Donawa, who picked out Crichlow to fire low past Tillett.

It was Crichlow’s second goal in as many games, with his solitary strike securing victory in the previous meeting between the sides.

Bermuda came close to doubling their advantage twice in the closing stages of the first half but Tillett was at his best to first deny Bean when palming away the striker’s effort from inside the area before tipping Luke Robinson’s rasping strike over his bar.

The goalkeeper was almost punished for his own poor clearance just five minutes after the restart but he managed to backtrack quickly enough to tip over Ne-Jai Tucker’s attempted lob from 35 yards.

Donawa thrashed wildly over from inside the area on the hour mark as the chances continued to be spurned by Bermuda, while at the other end Tucker made a crucial intervention to deny Horace Avila a goalscoring opportunity from inside the area.

Bermuda were punished in the 75th minute when referee David Gomez pointed to the spot after adjudging Lee to have upended Reneau inside the area. The midfielder picked himself up and made no mistake, slotting his penalty into the bottom right corner, sending Eve the wrong way.

Bermuda poured forward in desperate search of a winner in the closing stages with substitute Remy Coddington curling a last-gasp free kick into the grateful arms of Tillett.

The result leaves Bermuda third in the group, two points adrift of table-topping French Guiana and one point behind St Vincent, with games still remaining against both in the final international window next month.

Photo gallery

SCORERS

Bermuda: Crichlow 37

Belize: E Reneau 75 pen

TEAMS

Bermuda (4-2-3-1): D Eve 7 – L Simmons 8, R Lee 6, H Twite 7, L Robinson 7 – N Tucker 7 (sub: A Todd, 76min), K Martin 7 – J Donawa 6, K Crichlow 7 (sub: R Lambe, 69 6), D Parfitt-Williams 7 – J Bean 6 (sub: R Coddington, 69 6). Substitutes not used: D Bell, J Bather, D Cook, R Jones Jr, L Evans, J Butterfield-Steede.

Belize (4-5-1): C Tillett 9 – A Barillas 6 (sub: C Westley, 61 6), E Martinez 6, E Trapp 6, J Myvette 6 – J Polanco 7, W Moss 6 (sub: D Myvette, 79), N Mensah 6 (sub: A Zelaya, 79), M Salzar 7, H Avila 7 (sub: M Palacio 85) – C Bernandez 6 (sub: E Reneau, 61 7). Substitutes not used: L Cunil, B Jones, J Lennan, A Chi, D Logan, G Thurton. Booked: Avila.

Referee: D Gomez (Costa Rica).