Bangladesh National Football Team will start their campaign in the seven-nation SAFF Suzuki Cup 2015 taking on holders Afghanistan in a group B match today (Thursday) at 6:30 pm IST at the Trivandrum International Stadium in Kerala.
Bhutan will play the Maldives in Group B opener on the same day at 3:30 pm at the same venue.
Seven South Asian countries split into two groups-hosts India, Nepal, Sri Lanka (Group A) holders Afghanistan, Maldives, Bhutan, Bangladesh (Group B) are taking part in the 12-day meet.
Star Sports will live telecast the match direct from the stadium.
The 11th SAFF Championship reduced to seven countries and fixture was also revised as Pakistan Football Federation withdrew their national team last month.
Bangladesh National Football team left the capital for Kerala last Sunday to participate in SAFF Suzuki Cup’2015 schedule to be held in Kerala, India from December 23 to January 3 eyeing on South Asian soccer title
In a pre-match press briefing at Hotel Vivanta Taj in Kerala, the newly appointed Bangladesh coach Maruful Haque expressed his optimizing for doing well in the seven-nation 11th SAFF Championship against holders Afghanistan.
Maruful Haque hopes for a stern challenge in this year’s edition of SAFF Suzuki Cup. Bangladesh, who are drawn alongside defending champions Afghanistan, Bhutan and Maldives in Group B are looking to overcome the challenge of a difficult group.
“We have been working hard for 18 days,” said a confident Maruful Haque, before insisting how satisfied he was with the facilities. “So far I’m happy with the facilities,” he said, according to official website of SAFF.
Bangladesh Coach Maruful Haque said, “We are ready to play the Afghanistan, our team is doing training for last 18 days, our team is now experienced a lot because they played many International matches this year including World Cup Qualifiers, I do gope our team will do a good result in the SAFF Championship 2015”
Head Coach of Afghanistan Peter Segrt said, “we are the defending champions, we came here to take the cup again as Champion, We respect all the teams, every team is strong enough in this tournament” The first game against Bangladesh is the most important game for Afghanistan, said Segrt while talking to the media about his team’s chances this year and the respect he has for all his opponents. When asked about his team’s chances in this year’s edition of SAFF Suzuki Cup, Afghan coach said, “We have tried to do our best in training, It is too early to talk about chances” But he denied suggestions it would be easy for the defending champions this year just because they triumphed last time around.
