Hosts eye title

Hosts Bangladesh are confident they can qualify for next year's Asian Youth Cup by emerging champions in the AHF U-21 Cup, which gets underway at the Maulana Bhasani National Stadium today.
Chinese Taipei and Sri Lanka will face off in the only fixture of the opening day while Bangladesh will begin their campaign tomorrow taking on Chinese Taipei. The hosts will take on Thailand on December 2, Oman on December 4 and Sri Lanka on December 6. The five-team tournament will conclude on December 7. Top two teams from this tournament will qualify for the Asian Youth Cup in Malaysia next year.
Bangladesh coach Mamunur Rashid feels that his side can qualify for the Youth Asian Cup by winning the title at home.
“Oman and Sri Lanka are good teams as they have 6/7 national players with experience of playing 15-20 international matches. But we are a good team as well and we want to emerge champions playing as a team,” said Rashid, during a pre-tournament press briefing at the Bangladesh Olympic Association auditorium yesterday.
The Bangladesh team, which features eight players of the national team, have been in training for almost two months and have toured Punjab earlier this month as part of their preparation for this tournament. They won six out of seven matches against local teams there, scoring 24 goals against eight. Captain Sarwar Hossain feels that preparation will hold them in good stead.
“We have tried to rectify the mistakes we made in India and we have good understanding among the players, which we will prove on the field,” said the national midfielder.