The Bangladesh Football Federation on Saturday finalised the schedule of the upcoming World Cup 2018 qualifying round home matches against Bangladesh’s four Group B opponents. All of the games will be played at the Bangabandhu National Stadium. Bangladesh will start their qualification campaign against Kyrgyzstan on June 11 before facing Tajikistan five days later.
Hosts want to utilise the home condition against two Central Asian sides so that they have decided to kick-off both of their matches at 3:00pm.
Players of two former Soviet Union nations usually play in the cold conditions but in the middle of June they have to play against Bangladesh under soaring heat.
Bangladesh, the bottom ranked side in the Group B, where current Asian champions Australia and Jordan will be the top favourites, set their initial target to earn points from their two home matches against Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.
Bangladesh will host Jordan in their third home match on September 8 before playing their last home match against the Socceroos on November 17.
The match between Bangladesh and Jordan will start at 6:00pm at the Bangabandhu National Stadium while the hosts will face Australia at 5:30pm at the same venue.
National team local coach Saiful Bari Titu hinted that national team head coach Lodewijk de Kruif is trying to bring German based Bangladeshi left winger Reasat Khaton before the tough challenge.
The 25-year old Reasat, who was able to impress de Kruif in the trial of the national team before 2013 SAFF Championship, signed for Pachanga Diliman, top club in the Philippines United Football League but yet to play any single match.
‘Reasat showed his interest to head coach [de Kruif] to get one last chance to prove him,’ Titu told reporters on Saturday.
‘Coach may observe him in the preparation camp.’
Titu also believes that the boiling heat of June might help them to get positive results against two Central Asian nations at home.
‘We beat Tajikistan five years ago but we don’t know the present condition of the team. But our target is to utilise the hot conditions against them,’ Titu said.
BFF is also trying to manage at least two warm-ups before the qualifiers as they have already discussed with Afghanistan and Myanmar to play two matches.
-With New Age input
