Jamal hopeful ahead of Bahrain tie
89th in the FIFA Rankings, Bahrain are Group E favourites. They are 99 places ahead of 188th-ranked Bangladesh, who suffered a 0-2 defeat to Bahrain in the only match between two sides, during the President's Cup in Seoul in 1979. Bahrain appear to be in peak form, registering six wins in seven matches this year against Uganda, Congo, India, Burundi, Myanmar and Thailand. Their lone defeat came against Belarus. Bangladesh have played only three matches this year, losing to Maldives before drawing against Mongolia and Indonesia.
Bangladesh are set to return to the qualification round of the Asian Cup after a lengthy 16-year gap when they take on mighty Bahrain in one of the Group E openers at the Bukit Jalil National Stadium in Kuala Lumpur today.
The match will kick off at 3:15pm (Bangladesh Standard Time).
Bangladesh had a dream campaign in their first-ever Asian Cup qualifiers, in which they secured a spot in the 10-team final round after finishing as one of four group runners up in 1979. But they had a harder time in the final round despite showing potential in two of their four matches in Qatar in 1980.
Since then, Bangladesh were part of the Asian Cup qualifying round until 2006, barring 1996 when Bangladesh withdrew from the competition. Bangladesh would not make it to the final round in their next six attempts.
Instead, Bangladesh were demoted to compete in the newly-introduced AFC Challenge Cup, a tournament that rewarded the winners with tickets to the Asian Cup Qualifiers until it was suspended in 2015.
The AFC then made massive changes to the Asian Cup and World Cup Qualifiers but Bangladesh failed to make it to the qualifiers, losing 3-1 on aggregate to Bhutan in the 2016 playoffs.
This time around, they beat Laos 1-0 on aggregate to enter the Asian Cup Qualifiers and end their 16-year exile but have been derailed by injuries.
But ahead of their tough group encounters, Bangladesh captain Jamal Bhuiyan was upbeat of springing a surprise on Bahrain, who are 99 places ahead of Bangladesh in the FIFA Rankings.
"I think the other team may think Bangladesh will be an easy target but I think the players have other things on their mind and we can spring some surprises," Jamal said at the pre-match conference yesterday.
"Tomorrow is a big match. We know that we have done everything to prepare well," Jamal said. "Of course, we lack in some areas but we have discussed that with the coach. Overall, if the game plan goes well, we can get something from this match."
Bangladesh coach Javier Cabrera knows his team face an uphill task against Bahrain and is expected to adopt a counter-attacking strategy.
"It is going to be a similar approach [as it was in a recently friendly against Indonesia] tomorrow [Wednesday]," said Cabrera, who played a four-man defence and two defensive midfielders in a five-man midfield in that goalless draw.