Bangladesh will take on the Bhutan challenge today following their commendable victory over Maldives in the second match of the ongoing Bangabandhu SAFF Championship football at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium in Bangalore, India.
Bangladesh, who went Bangalore with their immediate target to secure their place in the semifinal, saw a huge blow in their first match after going down to Lebanon.
The defeat to Lebanon, second match turned into a must win situation for Bangladesh to remain in the race to qualify in the semifinal and crossed the Maldives hurdle with a 3-1 victory playing with full authority coming back from a goal-down.
“We had a strong performance in the last two matches and we know that we will face another strong team. We, however, are prepared to do our best and are confident of winning,” said former national star and now the assistant coach of Bangladesh Hassan Al Mamun.
Today Bangladesh will face their back to back challenge when they will take on Bhutan to cross the last hurdle to make semi-final berth.
Though there are also some equations, as, if they will win against Maldives it would be easier to progress their run but if they will make draw and Maldives will lose to Lebanon in the first match of the day, Bangladesh will also move into the last fours.
However, all the members, including players and coaches are very much determined to win the today’s match when they take it as a big challenge.
Hassan Al Mamun, who expressed his team's intentions are to go all the way to finish the stage with winning note with defeating Bhutan.
“In fact, after winning the match against Maldives playing with full domination, boys are fully charged and ready to take on Bhutan.”
“We are ready to face Bhutan challenge, boys got back their confidence after winning the previous match. To be honest, we played some dominating football against Lebanon but were very unfortunate had to suffer defeat. However, the boys just forgetting that made a fresh start against Maldives.”
“The win morally boosted up them high and all are prepared to take on Bhutan focusing on securing a win, which will qualify in the semifinal,” said, Hassan Al Mamun, who was also one of the members of the winning team of the SAFF Championship in 2003.
“As a team, boys have been improving game by game - showing passion and good belief and we want to win,” said the former national team’s defender.
“We worked hard in both the matches and this team has given their best and we’re looking forward to playing Bhutan,” he added.
Bangladesh Head Coach Javier Cabrera wants his team to maintain their winning momentum when they will face Bhutan in their final Group B tie.
Bidding to secure a place in the semi-finals, coach Cabrera urged his men to use their final Group Stage match to show their best performances, as they geared up to face the Bhutan.
“Having stamped their authority on match against Maldives with an impressive 3-1 win the full team is highly inspired and just aiming to win the match,” Cabrera said.
“The last few days have been quite tough on the boys, and they all did very well. So, we are quite pleased and hopeful for the next match.”
