Although the national team -- playing under the banner of BFF XI -- finished runners-up after their 2-1 defeat to hosts Myanmar in extra-time, coach Diego Cruciani's target to prepare his charges for next month's SAFF Football Cham-pionship in Pakistan was successful.

The team returned home on Eid Day and Argentine coach Cruciani expressed his satisfaction saying that he was impressed the way the boys had played in the four matches.

"I won't say I am unhappy because they played good football in Myanmar. Although the result does not matter at this stage, I would have been happier had we won the tournament," Cruciani told on Sunday at the BFF Bhaban.

"They got tired in the final and could not hold the strength in the end. But I can promise you that this team will start playing better before the SAFF Championship, which is my main target.

"Bangladesh have performed well against strong teams like Myanmar and China and I was looking forward to this match practice," added Cruciani, who trained the team for less than a month before the Myanmar trip.

"Now I have seen the boys play in matches and I will try to correct the mistakes they have made in the camp. We also need to take the fitness level higher," the Argentine said.

He will get another three weeks before the SAFF Championship kicks off in Karachi on December 7.

The team's 20-day final preparation begins on November 12 at BKSP and trainer Ariel Colman said he would set harder workouts for players.

"The boys need more fitness. In the first match against China they were excellent but looked tired in the second match. They played well in the final but little mistakes cost us the title," Colman told yesterday.

"Farhad found an open net and had he not missed the chance, we would have won the tournament.

"In the preliminary camp, we tried to build the strength in the players. Now, we will work on speed and skills. There would be more with-the-ball workouts. We are overall satisfied but there would be more hard work this time," said the soft-spoken trainer warned the players.

The 24-member squad is expected to be reduced to 22 very soon and if veteran defender Rajani recovers from injury, he will be included in the camp.

"We did not expect the team to do this well after such a short training," said team leader Ashrafuddin Chunnu.

"The improvement is evident. They looked more confident and mentally strong. Their effort and spirit was marvellous," said the former national winger adding that he had not seen the Bangladesh team play so beautiful in 15 years.

"China are a very strong side but we really played well to get a deserved win. We could not keep up that tempo in the next matches. I also praise the coach because of his match reading capability.

"We definitely felt the absence of Arman in the final but the real difference between champions Myanmar and us was fitness. We have to improve on it this section," said Chunnu.

Manager Sayeed Hassan Kanan also admitted that fitness is the area they need to work on now.

"The coach thinks the players need to change their food habit. We are going to introduce different menu in the camp," Kanan told.

"It seemed that they were not afraid of the opposition any more. Both the goalkeepers (Aminul and Biplab) were superb. Farhad was also a revelation. He missed so many goals in the league but became an instant hero after scoring four goals in the first three games. Now we are going to prepare the hard way for the SAFF Championship," he said.