Booters to warm up against Bhutan
The Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) has fixed two warm-up matches for the national team against Bhutan ahead of next month’s Word Cup and Asian Cup Qualifying fixtures against Qatar and India, ensured BFF vice-president and National Teams Committee’s deputy chairman Tabith Awal.
Bangladesh will host 62nd-ranked Qatar, the current Asian champions, in Dhaka on October 10 before travelling to Kolkata to play against 104th-ranked India on October 15.
Following the 1-0 defeat against Afghanistan in the first match of the qualifiers, Bangladesh team’s coach Jamie Day allowed two week’s rest to his charges, with the camp scheduled to resume on September 25.
The 39-year-old coach wanted at least two practice matches either against a national team or a club side ahead of the qualifiers, and the NTC obliged by arranging two matches against 185th-ranked Bhutan, who failed to qualify for the qualifiers.
“We tried to invite national teams who were available and have been in practice, so our main purpose has been served. In this case, we found Bhutan, who agreed to play two practice matches on September 29 and October 3,” Tabith told reporters.
“Win or loss against Bhutan will not matter for us because we want the coach to fine-tune his squad through the two practice matches as I believe the coach will play in a different way against Qatar and India,” added Awal.
Day believes the two matches against Bhutan will help his charges ahead of the fixtures against Qatar and India.
“I am looking forward to the start of the training camp and preparation for the two games [against Qatar and India], which will be extremely tough. But we are looking forward to those matches and playing against good teams can only help our players gain experience,” Day said in a social media conversation from England.
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