Bangladesh national team’s football players, who will resume their international assignments on March 21 with the away match against Palestine, will be busy with their club duty until February 24. Booters played their last international match of the World Cup 2026 and the Asia Cup 2027 qualifying round against Lebanon on November 21, 2023, at home.
It will be a long time before Bangladesh play their next FIFA matches, and by this time, national players have been playing in Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) football. But assistant coach of the team Hassan Al Mamun does not think the long break would be a problem, as the players are still playing.
Meanwhile, the head coach, Javier Cabrera, has gone on leave for a few days and is likely to return to Bangladesh next week.
Hassan Al Mamun, deputy of Cabrera, when talking to the Bangladesh Post on Friday about their plans for the next matches, looked very positive, as he is very optimistic about doing well against Palestine and Lebanon.
Mamun, the former national star, said that all the players are now under their clubs’ programs but also under the full supervision of the coaches.
Mamun said, “It will not be a problem for players’ return to the international circuit after a long interval because they are playing the BPL and the Federation Cup, followed by the Independence Cup.”
“The first phase of the BPL will be concluded on February 24, and players will have one week for recovery. Our next matches are scheduled for March 21 and 26 at away and home grounds, respectively, against Palestine. So we will have three weeks to prepare for the matches. And I think that would be enough time, as we will not have to work with the players’ fitness. We will just work on our opponents’ techniques and strategies and focus on the development of our tactical issues. Coach will return next week, and we will set our plans.”
Mamun, the former national captain, replying to the query about their targets with the next matches, said, “You see, when we play, we have to set a vision; without vision, we could not progress. So, obviously, we have a target with the next matches. You know all the teams in our group are higher in FIFA rankings, including Australia, which played in the knockout phase of the FIFA World Cup 2022. But obviously we will try at our optimum level to cross the hurdles.”
“Palestine are a very strong side; Australia had a hard-fought 1-0 win against them. But our target would be to earn at least one point away and fight for the full three points at home. In fact, Palestine and Lebanon are not unknown to us; they are not beyond our reach,” Mamun replied to a query.
Mamun informed me that players are also very positive and excited about the next matches.
“We are in close touch with the players; they are very positive about the next matches and eagerly waiting to play,” said Mamun.
