Dearth of strikers gives rise to fears
With no prolific strikers to lead the line, the Bangladesh national football team have been struggling at the international level for a few years and this aspect will be the biggest headache for them ahead of their home match against Bhutan in their Asian Cup play-off qualifying tie next month.
In contrast, Bhutan -- who have long been considered lightweights in the football world and are currently 193rd in the FIFA rankings -- are on their way up thanks to their lethal striking duo of Tshering Dorji and Chencho Gyeltshen.
So far, Bangladesh have enjoyed the upper hand on Bhutan, winning seven of their eight matches and drawing the other.
Bhutan made it to the Joint Qualifiers for the World Cup and Asian Cup, where they defeated Sri Lanka twice, courtesy of strikes from Dorji and Gyeltshen. Although the tiny Himalayan nation fell at the next stage, but Dorji and Gyeltshen combined to hit the net five times, which is a stark contrast in terms of scoring to Bangladesh.
Bangladesh could only find the back of the net twice in their eight World Cup and Asian Cup Qualifying matches. One of those goals came from Zahid Hasan Emily, while the other was a suicidal own goal.
With Emily -- Bangladesh's last recognised hitman -- in the twilight of his career and nursing a knee injury, the remaining strikers of the national team like Shakhawat Hossain Rony, Nabib Newaj Jibon and Aminur Rahman Sajib have failed time and again at both international and domestic levels with their poor finishing.
The current crop of strikers -- Rony, Jibon and Sajib -- have made it to head coach Tom Saintfiet's preliminary squad, but they have been enduring a lean patch in the domestic league. Rony and Jibon have yet to open their accounts while Sajib has only scored one goal so far.
In the case of Rony however, an exception may be made as the Sheikh Russel forward is much different when donning the national colours and he had shown that with two goals against Bhutan in the SAAF Championship and another brace in the 4-2 win over Sri Lanka in last year's Bangabandhu Gold Cup.
Away from the trio of strikers, there are some promising players in Saintfiet's squad, including the in-form Jewel Rana, Rubel Mia and Abdullah and Mehdi Hasan Tapu.
In the current season, right winger Rubel leads the goalscoring charts with six goals followed by Jewel and Tapu, who have four each, while Abdullah and Sentu Chandra scored three and two goals respectively.
Nevertheless, the Belgian coach's biggest worry will be confining Bhutan's lethal striking duo while hoping that his strikers can fire to ensure that Bangladesh cross the hurdle in the Asian Cup play-off qualifiers.
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