Bangladesh U-23s play against Kuwait today

Bangladesh U-23 football team will look to begin their AFC U-23 Asian Cup Qualifiers campaign on a winning note when they take on Kuwait in a Group D encounter at the Jar Stadium in Tashkent, Uzbekistan today.

The match will get underway at 4:00pm (Bangladesh time) as hosts Uzbekistan and Saudi Arabia square off at the same time at Pakhtakor Stadium.

Head coach Maruful Haque has set sights on a maiden final round appearance in the continental championship in the team's fifth attempt.

At the official press conference in Tashkent yesterday, Bangladesh's lone UEFA A licenced coach, Haque, reiterated his target of a win against Kuwait, whose senior side are 45 places ahead of Bangladesh in FIFA ranking.

"I know our opponents are much higher in terms of FIFA ranking but on match day, the team that will perform better according to strategy and tactic will come out with a win," Haque said. "We are confident about winning our first match against Kuwait. We must respect our opponents and I told the boys to perform according to the strategy and prepare mentally to take this challenge."

Bangladesh had four weeks of preparation but played no practice matches before heading to Uzbekistan while Kuwait have recently played in a regional tournament. However, Haque is optimistic about performing well with a team that has a mixture of experienced and new players.

"Our focus and target are to qualify for the final round, so we formed a squad with a mixture of experienced players and new players," replied Haque to a query.

Captain Tutul Hossain Badsha also echoed the sentiment of the coach and vowed to perform according to the game strategy.

"We know our opponents are good but we are ready for tomorrow's match. We are looking forward to the game and will try to win it. The coach has told us to follow the strategy to get a result and I am hopeful that we will perform well to get a good result," said Badsha, who, along with five U-23 players, were part of the senior side in the recent SAFF Championship.