Under pressure Bangladesh booters faces Bhutan in an important AFC Asian Cup play-off 2 match at the Bangabandhu National Stadium today (Tuesday) at 7 pm.
Local booters has got themselves in an extra ordinary difficult situation after their dismal performance in a friendly match against the Maldives where they were dumped 0-5 goals by the host at the Male stadium last Thursday.
Disappointed football fans believed that it is high time for the booters pull their socks and show some good brand of soccer against Bhutan.
Both coaches, Tom Sainfiet of Bangladesh and Pema Dorji of Bhutan, sounded optimism and were looking forward to win the crucial match tomorrow in the pre-match presser at the BFF House on Monday.
Bangladesh coach Tom Saintfiet in his comment pointed out that Bhutan would be happy with a draw and therefore they will go for counter attack. He said that he would be happy with a win.
He added, “It will be nice if we don’t concede a goal. If its 1-0 I’m happy, if its 2-0, I’m more happy, if its 3-0 I’ll be even more happy. We need to win tomorrow because going to Bhutan for the away match with that altitude thing would not easy. We can’t go all out as their star striker Chencho Gyeltshen will become free and will have an easy chance to score. That would put us in deeper trouble.”
“We have a problem that we don’t have strikers. Most of the clubs have African strikers, and these mediocre African strikers play against clubs who have African centre-backs. So our defenders don’t develop and our strikers don’t develop too. I believe we have strikers and have the quality but they
don’t develop because of lack of opportunity.”
Bhutan coach Pema Dorji said,”We have seven players from Tatung FC which beat Sheikh Russel recently. Winning and losing is part of the game. Overall all of my players are confident. All the players are looking forward to the match against Bangladesh tomorrow. We used to practice on artificial turf
back home, but here the match will be held on grass. So it is very difficult for us. On top of that the pitch is very heavy.”
BD Squad: Goalkeeper: Ashrafu Islam Rana and Sahidul Alam.
Deffence: Md Raihan Hasan, Monsur Amin, Topu Barman, Md. Atiquer Rahman Fahad, Razaul Karim, Ariful Islam, Mamun Miah and Anamul Haque Sharif.
Midfield: Atiqur Rahman Meshu, Hemonta Vinsent Biswas, Jewel Rana, Didarul Alam and Emon Mahmud.
Forward: Mehedi Hasan Tapu, Shakhawat Hossain Rony, Nabib Newaz Ziban, Mehebub Hasan Nayan, Rubel Miya, Md. Abdullah, Jafar Iqbal and Sohel Rana.
