Booters take on Mariana today

Bangladesh's Dutch coach Lodewijk de Kruif (3rd from R) oversees his charges' training at the Army Training Centre yesterday, ahead of their final AFC Challenge Cup qualifier against Northern Mariana at the Dasarath Stadium in Kathmandu today. The match kicks off at 3.30pm Bangladesh time. Photo: Courtesy

With a quest of keeping their hope of qualifying alive, Bangladesh will be eying a big win against lowly Northern Mariana Island in their third and final Group D match of the AFC Challenge Cup Qualifiers at 3:30 pm (BST) at the Dasarath Stadium in Kathmandu, Nepal today.
Bangladesh will have a large interest on the result of the other match between Nepal and Palestine as a win for Nepal, coupling with a win for Bangladesh, might see them go through as group champions.
The two best runners-up from five groups, along with five group champions, will advance to the final round. After two games apiece, Palestine are on top in the group with six points and need a single point in today's tie against Nepal to go through to the finals as group champions. Bangladesh will need a win over Mariana Island to finish runners-up in the group and will have to wait for the results of other four groups to learn their fate. The matches of two other groups will also be finalised today while the matches of the remaining two groups have not started yet.
Apart from those equations, Bangladesh can dream of going to the finals as group champions, subject to winning by a big margin against Mariana Island and a Palestinian defeat to Nepal. In that case, Bangladesh will have to beat lowly Mariana Island by 9 or more goals and

Nepal will have to beat Palestine by at least one goal.
Whatever the equation is, Bangladesh are looking forward to posting their second successive victory by beating Mariana Island, who conceded 6-0 and 9-0 defeats against Nepal and Palestine respectively.
The Bangladesh players were upbeat in the training session yesterday after beating Nepal 2-0 on the previous day and will be looking to take that encouragement to the match against Mariana Island.
“The victory over Nepal is very motivating for the players, who also had to beat some 20,000 Nepalese who were in the stadium. Our boys played really well and I hope that they will carry it to the next match,” said Bangladesh's Dutch coach Lodewijk de Kruif yesterday.
“Northern Mariana Island seems to be an easy opponent but we want to play our natural game and win the match,” said De Kruif.
Having conceded 15 goals in two matches, Mariana Island's coach Koo Luam Khen is thinking of protecting his backline and go into counter-attack to find their maiden goal in the tournament.
“We know Bangladesh are a very strong side and we will be trying to work hard on our defence and then hope for a good result,” said Khen.