Bangladesh take on India
Bangladesh will take on regional powerhouse India in the opening match of the SAFF U-18 Championship at the Changlimithang Stadium in Thimphu today. The match will kick off at 4:00pm Bangladesh time.
Bangladesh coach Mahbub Hossain Roxy picked India as the strongest side in the tournament but nevertheless, vowed to give a good challenge in the opening game.
Bangladesh were beaten on penalties by India in the semifinals of the last edition which was held as the SAFF U-19 Championship two years ago. The team this time around though, unlike on the previous occasion, boasts players who ply their trade in the top two tiers of the professional league. However, they have not had the best of preparations as the whole squad was available to the coach for just three days, and only a total of 17 days of sporadic training could take place.
“I think India are the strongest side of the tournament. Nevertheless we hope to play a good game,” Roxy said during the pre-match press conference yesterday. “The good thing is this tournament will be held in league format, so we will get to play all the other teams and there will be opportunities to recover if we do badly in one match.”
India coach Floyd Pinto also showed respect to his opening-game opposition. “India, Nepal or Bangladesh should win the title,” Pinto said. “We treat every match as a final. So we will be playing our first final tomorrow.”
The Indian team played a number of practice matches as part of their preparations for this tournament, the Indian coach said. Bangladesh, however, go into the tournament without playing any such practice matches. They reached Thimphu on Saturday morning and had their official practice session on the match venue yesterday.
The second match of the day will be between Nepal and hosts Bhutan. Maldives are the other team in the tournament. Each team will play against the others and the team with most number of points will emerge champions.
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