Bangladesh were drawn against their World Cup Qualifying round counterparts Tajikistan in the Asian Cup Qualifiers play-off as the draw of the two rounds play-off featuring 11 teams was held in Kuala Lampur, Malaysia on Thursday. Bangladesh, who finished their World Cup and Asian Cup joint qualification round as 36th among 39 participating teams, will face the Tajiks at an away game on June 2 before they play the home game on June 7.
Among 11 participating teams — who were placed 29th to 39th in the recently concluded second round of the World Cup and Asian Cup Qualifiers — eight teams will qualify from the two-round play-off and will join with 16 more teams who have already qualified to the third round of Asian Cup Qualifiers.
Initially 10 teams except the 39th-placed Bhutan will play the home-and-away basis play-offs and the five winners will advance to the Qualifiers.
While the five losers will join Bhutan to form three pairings and play home and away matches against each other and the winner of each pairing will progress to the 24-team Asian Cup Qualifying round.
Apart from Bangladesh against Tajikistan game the other matches of play-off round 1 will be played between India and Laos, Maldives against Yemen, Malaysia against Timor-Leste and Chinese Taipei will take on Cambodia.
Even if Bangladesh lose against Tajikistan, still they will get another chance as that would mean they will have to face lowly Bhutan in the second round of play-off .
Earlier, both Tajikistan and Bangladesh faced each other twice in the Group B of the World Cup qualifiers where Bangladesh played a 1-1 draw at home before suffering a 0-5 defeat in the away match.
-With New Age input
