'Tough for both teams'

Although the scorching heat in Cox's Bazar had been discussed during an official pre-semifinal press conference yesterday, both the coaches and players have vowed to overcome the weather and put up good shows in the Bangabandhu Gold Cup semifinals at the Birshreshtha Shaheed Ruhul Amin Stadium.

The Philippines, placed at 114th in FIFA rankings, will take on the 120th ranked Tajikistan at 2:30pm today while hosts Bangladesh will square off against Palestine tomorrow at the same time and venue.

Palestine have the edge after being afforded two days to train before facing Bangladesh, who hope to take advantage of home conditions.

The Philippines have never lost to Tajikistan in any of their four previous meetings. This time around though, Tajikistan are tipped as favourites over the second-string Philippines side.

“Tajikistan gave us a hard time before losing those two matches in the 2019 Asian Cup Qualifiers, so this time they are much more motivated. I think tomorrow's match will be hard for both teams under the heat and humidity of Cox's Bazar,” said Philippines captain Bahadoran Misagh.

Aside from Bangladesh, the coaches and captains of all four teams attended the press conference at the team hotel as the hosts were attending their scheduled training session at 2:30pm.

“Coach Jamie Day was supposed to brief the conference but he was taken to a hospital after complaining about pain in his chest at about 1:00pm. Doctors diagnosed that his heart rate was higher than normal. He is under observation at the hospital,” informed Bangladesh team manager Satyajit Das Rupu.

The English coach remained under observation at the hospital last night and a decision about his release from the hospital will be taken today, it has been learnt.