The Bangladesh Under-23 soccer team will play three practice matches ahead of their AFC U-23 Championship Qualifiers to be held next month in Palestine.
“The Under-23 side will play their first practice match against Abahani Limited on July 7 at Bangabandhu National Stadium (BNS) and then they will fly to Nepal to play second practice match against their Nepalese U-23 team in Kathmandu on July 11 before coming back home to face Sri Lanka Army SC on July 14,” team manager Satyajit Das Rupu told BSS.
Meanwhile, the current 31-member squad, which will regroup tomorrow (Friday) after the Eid vacation, has been trimmed from 36 members over the last few days. The squad will be further trimmed to the final 23-member after the match against Abahani, said the team manager.
Bangladesh have been drawn in group E along with Jordan, Palestine and Tajikistan of the AFC U-23 Championship Qualifiers. The team will start their tournament campaign taking on Jordan on July 19 and meet Tajikistan on July 21 before playing their last match of the group against hosts Palestine on July 23.
Ten group winners and five best runners-ups will join hosts China for the final round of the 16-team competition in 2018.
