Sports Reporter :
Motivated Bangladesh will take on favourites India in their second match of the SAFF Championship at the National Football Stadium in Male, the capital city of Maldives today. The match will kick-off at 5.00pm (BST). Private satellite sports channel T Sports will telecast the match live from the big bowl. Before today’s match, Bangladesh faced India in 30 matches. Of them, India won 16 matches, while Bangladesh registered two victories and rest of the 12 matches ended in draws.
India played in the final of this tournament for 11 times. They emerged the champions of seven times.
On the other hand, Bangladesh played in the final of this tournament for three times. Bangladesh became champions in the only one time. Besides, Bangladesh were ousted from this competition for six times in the first phase.
But Bangladesh had a 1-0 lead in the 88th minute of the play at Kolkata in their match of the FIFA World Cup qualifiers recently. Later, the match ended in a 1-1 draw.
Besides, Bangladesh lost to India by two goals to nil in their match of the FIFA World Cup qualifiers this year.
Midfielder Sohel Rana of Bangladesh said, ” We have started our SAFF campaign with a happy note. Now we want to show a better brand of soccer against India. If we excel against India, we shall achieve a good position. We are confident and we shall show positive approaches against India.”
On the other hand, Captain of India team Sunil Chhetri said, ” Every match seems to me a battle. So, we have to fight in the match before the end. We have to give hundred percent effort. No match is an easy thing.”
He said, ” Bangladesh have changed their Head Coach recently. Bangladesh are a tough opponents for us. We played against Bangladesh recently. The matches were hard-fought clashes. All the teams have improved their position. We want to advance match by match. Now I am thinking about Bangladesh.”
It may be mentioned that Bashundhara Kings showed a spectacular performance in the recently concluded AFC Cup qualifiers. Oscar Bruzon is the Head Coach of Bashundhara Kings. The Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) has appointed Oscar Bruzon as the Head Coach of Bangladesh Football team. So, the football lovers of the country want to show a positive result from Oscar Bruzon’s side.
