Day irked with players on the bench
Jamie Day is planning to start the preparation camp of the national football team for the World Cup and Asian Cup qualifying match against Afghanistan on either March 15 or 16. Bangladesh will host Afghanistan for their fifth match of the campaign at the Sylhet District Stadium on March 26.
The ongoing Bangladesh Premier League will be suspended for nearly three weeks following the sixth round on March 15, with Chattogram Abahani playing against Bashundhara Kings and Abahani taking on Muktijoddha Sangsad on that day.
"We will have 10 days' camp before the game [against Afghanistan]. The camp will probably begin on 15th or 16th March, so we want to have four to five days in Dhaka before four to five days in Sylhet," Day told reporters yesterday.
"Afghanistan are not only ranked higher than us but are also technically better. We played well against them but we were unlucky. We have home advantage now. We know we need to do very well to get a result. We have three home games and we will try to get points from there," said Day.
The British coach was, however, disappointed to see some of the national team players sitting idle or coming off the bench for their respective clubs in the league.
"I watched the games. I was a little bit disappointed that six or seven players were substitutes or not involved but it gave other players an opportunity. If they don't reach the level to cover for the national team level, I wouldn't make any changes. It's down to players to get a place in the team," said Day, who returned to Dhaka on February 19 and is supposed to leave for England on February 28 to attend the third part of his UEFA Pro-License course before coming back on March 4.
Bangladesh are at the bottom of Group E with one point from four matches while Afghanistan are third with four points from five matches.
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