FIFA, AFC Qualifiers: Bangladesh to play Qatar on Thursday
Bangladeshi players participated in a two-week training camp including two friendly matches against Bhutan as a part of their preparation.
Bangladesh National Football team will play their home match of the joint Qualification (Round-1) of the FIFA World Cup 2022 and AFC Asian Cup 2023 against upper-ranked Qatar at the Bangabandhu National Stadium (BNS) on Thursday.
The match that will kick-off at 7 pm (BST) will be live telecasted on BTV and Bangla TV.
In their next match, Bangladesh will meet neighbouring India in the away match on October 15 at Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata.
Bangladeshi players participated in a two-week training camp including two friendly matches against Bhutan as a part of their preparation.
The men in red and green beat the Himalayans by 4-1 goals in the first match on September 29 and 2-0 goals in the 2nd and last match on October 3, both at BNS.
In a pre-match press conference on Wednesday at Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) office in Motijheel, Bangladesh Head Coach Jamie Day said they have made a good preparation and will play their best tomorrow to get a good result.
"Players were trained extremely hard. We have good preparations and the victory against Bhutan gave us confidence. We will play our best tomorrow to get a good result," he said.
After asking about their plans, Jamie replied, "The match will be hard as Qatar are Asian champions, they have some very good players. We have worked on how to stop them and will try to capitalise on their weaknesses. In football, there are always surprise results. For us, we have to play extremely well, better than we performed recently."
"We have a good weapon, such as long throw-ins. But we have to utilize it. We have to be brave, aggressive and have to make the right movement inside the opponent's box." The coach added.
Bangladesh captain Jamal Bhuiyan said, "Qatar are number one team in Asia. We have to take our chances tomorrow. If we get the chances to shoot, we will definitely do that. We have to be better in front of the goals. We got the opportunity to score against Afghanistan but we missed. Scoring against Qatar is my dream."
"The coach worked on set pieces in the last few days. We are looking forward to doing good set-pieces tomorrow. My advice to the younger players is to go out and enjoy the game and take the opportunity and don't be nervous," the captain added.
Bangladesh got their veteran defender Tutul Hossain Badsha and Sushanto Tripura ruled out of the squad.
On the other hand, Qatar Head Coach Felix Sanchez said, "We are prepared as usual. We are trying to recover our players from the last matches in the clubs to keep them all together. Let hope to have a condition and good weather to play for our game."
"We watched the last game of Bangladesh and we know their strength. Set-piece such as long throw-ins are good opportunities for them. They prefer a more organised attack and they will try to play their way and we will try to play our way."
After asking about their plans, Sanchez replied, "We have a nice group of players who are able to understand each other. Our players are professional. It is true that we are not used to with Bangladesh's condition but we will give our best. We are going to perform at our highest level. We can't control the situation."
Qatar's key player and striker Ali Hassan Afif Yahya said, "Everyone knows it is a game of World Cup Qualification. I believe there is no small team and big team. We came here with our strategy and good preparations. We are not satisfied with the result against India. We want to have three points but honestly, we know it won't be so easy for us. So, we have to do our best. We trust ourselves, we believe ourselves. I hope it will be good for us."
Bangladesh, who was put on Group E of the AFC Cup with Qatar, Oman, neighbouring India and Afghanistan, started their campaign with a 0-1 goal defeat against Afghanistan in their first match at the Central Republican Stadium in the Tajik capital Dushanbe on September 10.
In the remaining group matches, Bangladesh will play Oman on November 14 in Oman, Afghanistan on March 26 next year in Bangladesh, Qatar on March 31 in Qatar, India on June 4 in Bangladesh and Oman on June 9 in Bangladesh.
On the other hand, Qatar are now dominating the point table securing 4 points from two matches with one win and one defeat.
They outplayed Afghanistan by 6-0 in their first match on September 5 but played a goalless draw (0-0) with India on September 1, both at Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium in Doha.
Earlier, a 58-member Qatar National Football team, including 26 booters and 32 officials, arrived Dhaka on Tuesday night.
Bangladesh currently are 41st in AFC and 187th in FIFA rankings, while the reigning Asian Champions and hosts of FIFA World Cup 2022 Qatar are 5th in AFC and 62nd in FIFA. \
Bangladesh team: Shahidul Alam Sohel, Ashraful Islam Rana, Anisur Rahman, Pappu Ahmed, Rahmat Mia , Yeasin Khan, Bishwanath Ghosh, Riyadul Hasan, Yeasin Arafat, Tutul Hosain Badsha, SM ManjururRahman, Raihan Hasan, Jamal Bhuiyan, Rabiul Hasan, Mamunul Islam Mamun, Sohel Rana, Biplu Ahamed, Arifur Rahman, Mohammad Ibrahim, Towhidul Alam Sabuz, Mahbubur Rahman, Matin Miah, Nabib Newaz Jiban, Saad Uddin and Jewel Rana.
Qatar team: Saad Al Dossari, Fahd Younis, Mohammed Bakrei, Pedro Miguel, Salim Al Hajri, Bualem Khkhohi, Tarek Salman, Hassan Al Haydos, Akram Afif, Abdulkqreem Hassan, Bassam Al Rawi, Al moiz Ali, Karim Boudiaf, Ali Hassan Afif Yahya, Ismail Mohammed, Musaab Khidr, Fahd Shenein, Ahmed Fathi, Yousef Abdulrizaq, Abdulaziz Hatim, Mohammed Alaa, Madi Ali, Ahmed Alaa, Abdulsalam Al Ahraq, Abdulrahman Mohammed and Ahmed Moien.