Final hurdle for hockey team

Bangladesh hockey team will look to complete their Asian Games Qualifiers campaign on a high when they take on hosts Oman in the final at the Sultan Qaboos Complex in Muscat today.

Bangladesh, the defending champions moved into the final with a laborious 3-2 win over Sri Lanka and are now set to embrace the final challenge from favourites Oman, who have always proved to be a difficult opponent for Mahbub Harun's men.

Although Bangladesh beat the Arab nation 6-1 in the previous edition of qualifiers four years ago, the men in red and green suffered defeats in the last two Hockey World League meetings – 0-2 in tiebreakers in 2015 and 2-3 in 2017. Oman were also ahead of Bangladesh in the FIH ranking ahead of the Asia Cup last year in Dhaka where the hosts secured sixth position while Oman finished eighth.

Though the two sides did not meet at that tournament, Oman played really well against Malaysia, South Korea and China and impressed all with their speed, skill and stamina. The appointment of Pakistani coach Tahir Zaman as the head coach is expected to be a further added boost to the Oman side.

However, Bangladesh coach Mahbub Harun is confident of beating the hosts and retaining the title.

“I was confident about reaching the final and I am still confident of defending the title which we won in the 2014 Asian Games Qualifiers,” Harun said, adding that the narrow victory against Sri Lanka was due to some excellent saves from the Sri Lankan goalkeeper.

“This Oman side is more developed side compared to the previous ones. They also played matches against Japan and Pakistan before the tournament,” Harun said. “We had a bad day against Sri Lanka, so we are hoping something good tomorrow because the boys have the capability to fight till the last minute.”