It's boys playing in men's league

When Bangladesh take on Tajikistan in their home-leg fixture of the Asian Cup Qualifiers at the Bangabandhu National Stadium today, it will be more like damage control instead of any thought of overturning that massive 5-0 deficit against the vastly superior Central Asian nation.

And ahead of the game, Bangladesh's Dutch coach Lodewijk de Kruif made no secret about that when he described his charges as 'primary school graduates playing at the university level'.

Smarting from the 0-5 drubbing in Dushanbe, Bangladesh however can only take inspiration from their last home fixture when they drew 1-1 against the same side in the World Cup qualifier last year.

The match, to be broadcast live by state-run BTV, will get underway at 4:30pm. 

The 46-year-old Kruif however has promised that his charges would at least try to display a better performance than their last match at Dushanbe.

“Tomorrow [Tuesday] is our home game and I hope lots of spectators come to support us. Our target is to bring a better performance than the away match.

“I'm convinced that when my players get onto the pitch, they give their 100%. The one thing you have to realise though is that, my players seem to be finishing primary school and directly jumping to university. Nothing in between there,” said de Kruif at a pre-match briefing at the BFF House yesterday.

Before leaving for Tajikistan, de Kruif's target was to secure a point from Tajikistan and then notch up a victory at home to advance to the Asian Cup Qualifiers. However, having realised the difference between the two sides, the Dutchman can no longer dare to even say that they wish to play for a draw. 

 “It was a disappointing result and it became clear from that that we need time to build a good side. In the home game, if there is a possibility, we have to go for a better result, but if it is a draw, we're still happy. If we lose giving everything, I'll still be satisfied as the opposition are much better [than us],” concluded de Kruif.

Captain Mamunul Islam was also as pessimistic about producing a good result, even going as far as blaming himself and his colleagues for not carrying out the instructions from the coach properly.

“There was no shortage of information from the coaching staff about the opponents but we failed to implement it on the pitch. For the last four years, we have been suffering from set-pieces. We are failures. 

“We have been shown what mistakes we did in Dushanbe and so we will try not to repeat those and put our best tomorrow [Tuesday],” said Mamunul.

De Kruif's counterpart Khakim Fuzaylov was a bit worried though over the weather conditions, but he has high hopes of posting another win against the home side. 

“We are having difficulties here with high humidity, nutrition and the hotel as well because of the cultural differences. Even though we are motivated, the first result must be forgotten in order to prepare for tomorrow's match as this is a playoff and anything can happen.”