Saintfiet starts camp with 12

With the ninth round of the Bangladesh Premier League concluding late last night, the national team's head coach Tom Saintfiet had only 12 players out of the 33-member squad to begin work with yesterday for the brief training camp ahead of the Asian Cup qualifying play-off second leg fixture against Bhutan.

Bangladesh require at least a scoring draw if not a win to advance to the next round of the qualification campaign after being held to a goalless stalemate by Bhutan in the first leg last month.

The second leg will be played in Thimphu on October 10 and so the Bangladesh team are set to leave on October 7.

The Belgian coach, who is desperate to see his side qualify, called back a few experienced players such as Mamunul Islam, Zahid Hasan Emily, Yeasin Khan and some fresh faces like Saad Ahmed to the squad. “The reason for calling some new players is to watch them for 2/3 positions as I want to keep as many options open as possible,” the Belgian coach said after a light training session at the Bangabandhu National Stadium yesterday.

“I will watch the players over the next few days and then decide about the final squad. Our only target is to qualify for the next round and we want to do it in any way, be it through a tie break, draw or win,” Saintfiet concluded.