Bangladesh national football team left Dhaka on Friday night for Melbourne to play their FIFA World Cup 2026 qualifying round first match against the mighty Australia to take place on November 16.
Booters will play their biggest match since 2015 as they faced off the same opponents in the same competition of FIFA World Cup football 2018 qualification phase.
But this time it will be a different experience for the Red and Green, when Australia now one of the best teams in Asia, who stunned some of the giants of world football in the World Cup 2022 in Qatar making a room in the last 16.
Australia also fought almost evenly with Argentina in their knockout encounter when the socceroos suffered defeat by 2-1 after taking lead against the ultimate champions of World Cup 2022 in Qatar.
However, in all respects Bangladesh will be the underdogs in the match when they will have nothing to lose but to bestow their best against one of the Asian giants.
Bangladesh team are going to Melbourne only fight at their optimal levelagainst the tougher opponents but not with any high hopes, as the coach, captain of the team put across their objectives the day before of their departure in a press meet on Thursday.
“If boys could play good football against Australia at their home venue it would be very positive for Bangladesh football. Australia will dominate us but we will have to play with a fighting spirit,” said Bangladesh team’s head coach Javier Cabrera in the press conference on Thursday.
Bangladesh captain Jamal Bhuiyan said that they will play with confidence to display a good game against the stronger opponents.
“It is important for us to perform well against the team like Australia, we will have to keep up the momentum of the matches we played against Maldives, Afghanistan and in the SAFF Championship.”
