Biggest hurdle for hosts
The fact that Bangladesh ensured a spot in the Bangabandhu Gold Cup semifinals and put up a good show against the Philippines has apparently injected new belief into the men in red and green ahead of their semifinal clash with Palestine tomorrow.
Following Bangladesh's unfortunate exit from the SAFF Championship group stages, coach Jamie Day's charges were under pressure to perform at the Bangabandhu Gold Cup. The hosts did just that by achieving their target of qualifying for the semifinals of the ongoing tournament, which is comparatively more competitive than before.
The booters played relatively better against the Philippines when compared to their match against Laos despite the absence of captain Jamal Bhuiyan, striker Mahabubur Rahman Sufil, defenders Wali Faisal and Tapu Barman.
Bangladesh now look to cross the semifinal hurdle by carrying their performance against Philippines into the clash against Palestine. In addition, they looked cheerful yet serious in yesterday's training session at the Birshreshtha Shaheed Ruhul Amin Stadium even though head coach Day was absent due to a sudden health issue.
In Day's stead, assistant coach Stuart Watkiss was seen emphasising on ball possession during the session in a bid to avert the possible aggression from the well-built Palestinians, who are quick, skillful and tactically sound. Watkiss even counted each successfully completed pass while the players passed the ball amongst themselves.
The players also gained self-confidence due to their day-to-day improvements as the national side and the Olympic squad registered a combined total of four wins and one draw from the last 10 matches they played in the past two-three months.
“We may have achieved our target for the tournament but we can't give up after coming to this stage because our performance has been improving match by match. There is a self-belief even among the bench players that we can win,” said a member of the playing eleven, on the condition of anonymity, following the team management's prohibition on speaking to the media.
The local players from Sylhet had seemingly put up more of a show on their home ground but the boys from Cox's Bazar -- striker Touhidul Alam Sabuj, Mohammad Ibrahim, Sushanta Tripura and goalkeeper Anisur Rahman Zico -- are now counting the hours till they can give their best against Palestine, provided they are picked for the first team.
After the training session, both Sabuj and Ibrahim, who generally come on as substitutes, informed that playing on their home turf in front of friends, family and well-wishers is going to be a huge inspiration.
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