Can Tajikistan topple Palestine?

The curtains will close on the Bangabandhu Gold Cup after Palestine take on Tajikistan in the final at the Bangabandhu National Stadium (BNS) today.

The match is set to begin at 6:30pm with Maasranga TV and Nagorik TV telecasting the encounter live from the stadium, which is the tournament's third match venue following the Sylhet and Cox's Bazar phases.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is expected to attend the occasion and later distribute prizes among the winners.

As expected, pre-tournament favourites Palestine, ranked 100th by FIFA, confirmed their place in the final of the six-team tournament with three straight wins while maintaining a perfect cleansheet record.

Meanwhile Tajikistan, ranked 120th by FIFA, reached this stage by handing a 2-0 defeat to the Philippines and although the side suffered a 2-0 defeat to Palestine in a group stage encounter, the final is expected to be a proper fight between the two.

Palestine coach Noureddin Ali believes that although Tajikistan will have an edge as they comparatively had more hours of rest, his charges are ready to make all of Palestine happy by clinching the trophy.

“It will be a tough match for us because we got only one day's rest against Tajikistan's two days. Tajikistan is a good team but it is a new match at a new venue in a new environment, so the team will have new motivation and will think afresh. I believe that my boys can beat Tajikistan if they want but we have to concentrate on not making any mistakes,” said Ali.

Tajikistan coach Tukhtaev Alisher also seemed confident about being able to turn the tide against Palestine at a venue where they became champions in the inaugural AFC Challenge Cup in 2006.

“We want to give our best and win the trophy. We can hope the final will be a different game even though we lost to them in a group stage match,” said Alisher.