UNB, Sylhet :
Favorite Malaysia Under-23 team will play Singapore Under-23 side in the first semifinal of the six-nation Bangabandhu Gold Cup International Football Tournament today (Thursday) at the Sylhet District Stadium.
The first semifinal of the FIFA and AFC approved Bangladesh’s prestigious international soccer meet will kick-off at 5 pm (Bangladesh Standard Time)
Malaysia smartly reached the semifinal as the Group A champions with all-win record beating hosts Bangladesh 1-0 and Sri Lanka 2-0 while Singapore managed a semifinal berth by virtue of better goal difference, securing just one point from two matches at the coffin of Bahrain.
Singapore drew goalless with Bahrain after conceding a 2-3 defeat to Group B champions Thailand while Bahrain were eliminated from the race after suffering a 0-3 defeat against Thailand.
Ahead of their Thursday’s semifinal clash, both Malaysia and Singapore made their practice at the BFF Football Academy here on Wednesday.
At a pre-match press conference at the Rose View Hotel on Wednesday, coaches of both Malaysia and Singapore expressed their optimism to win the match through tough battle.
Malaysian coach Rajip Ismail said, “We are not taking our opponents lightly. We respect them because Singapore is familiar with our game as all our players played in Singapore League. I think it will be a good match.”
“We’re very close with each other. We understand their players and also understand their game… we’ve to proceed carefully, but we’re inspired by our last two matches. I hope we can produce a good performance to enter the final as favorite,” he added
Ismail recalled: “We beat them (Singagore) in Brunei friendly match and after that we beat them again in Vietnam.”
Singapore coach Richard Bok said, “I think I achieved my target. The objective of our team was to compete and as well as to select 10 to 12 players for the Olympic qualifiers in March.”
“The players worked hard and moved to the semifinals and I give credit to the boys. Hopefully, we’ll give another good fight to Malaysia. This team is different than the last time we met them,” he added.
“They (Malaysia) are technically a good team, but we’re very careful specially about opponent captain Naim who is a very dangerous player,” Bok said.
President of Sylhet DFA Mohiuddin Ahmed Selim informed that 20 percent of total tickets for the semifinal have been sold out till Wednesday afternoon. He hoped that most of the tickets will be sold out before the match.
