MIAMI, United States, (CMC) – Trinidad and Tobago missed out on the top spot in their group when they crashed to a shock 5-3 defeat to already relegated Curacao, in their final League A game of the CONCACAF Nations League on Tuesday.
In a thoroughly entertaining contest at the Ergilio Hato Stadium in Willemstad, a stunned T&T found themselves trailing 2-0 after only 12 minutes and failed to recover despite a flurry of second half goals.

With Panama defeating Guatemala 3-0 in the other Group A game in Panama City, it meant Trinidad and Tobago had to be content with second place on nine points, with the Panamanians going top on 10 points.
Despite the loss, however, T&T qualified for the quarter-finals of the Nations League where they will now meet confederations heavyweights United States.
“I think the campaign was a huge success. Nobody expected us to be where we were coming into this final game, and we qualified to play in the quarter-finals,” said head coach, Angus Eve.

“This is a rebuilding process we’re going through and you’re going to have days that you have your ups and downs …
“All in all, we did a very good campaign and we’re still alive when other people are going home.”
T&T were hurt when Rangelo Janga raced onto a ball over the top and beat goalkeeper Denzil Smith one-on-one from close range in the seventh minute, the first goal of his brace.
And Godfried Roemeratoe doubled the lead for the hosts five minutes after being teed up in the box by Kenji Gorré, who weaved his way through the Trinidadian defence.
Gorré then got on the scoresheet in the 56th minute from the spot to deepen the visitors’ misery before Reon Moore (68th) and Kristian Lee-Him (74th) hauled them back into the contest.

Any hopes of another T&T comeback were dashed when Curacao responded with two goals in the space of four minutes through strikes by Juninho Bacuna (78th) and Janga (81st), Kareem Moses getting a third for T&T in the 86th with the game long gone.
In League B, Guyana topped Group D and secured promotion to League A, after coming from a goal down to thrash Puerto Rico 3-1 in Basseterre.
They found themselves trailing just before half-time when Gerald Díaz held off his marker to poke past goalkeeper Quillan Roberts but Guyana then produced a second half blitz, to take control of the encounter.

Nathan Moriah-Welsh pounced on a bungled back pass to equalise in the 48th, Reon Moore headed in Stephen Duke-McKenna’s cross in the 76th before another mix-up in the Puerto Rico defence led to Omari Glasgow’s 85th minute strike.

Also in Group B, Antigua and Barbuda drew 2-2 with the Bahamas at home, a result which made them safe from relegation.