Smarting from two successive defeats, an injury-hit Bangladesh U23 football team will take on Hong Kong in their Group E last match of the 16th Asian Games at Huadu Stadium today.
Bangladesh’s bid to qualify for the 16-team second round was all but shattered after losing to Uzbekistan and United Arab Emirates by identical 3-0 margins and they can only dream of playing the second round as one of the four best third-place finishers in the event of a hugely unlikely occurrence in the Group E matches today.
Bangladesh will have to win against Hong Kong by a huge margin and the 2004 champions Uzbekistan must lose to UAE also by very wide margin.
UAE and Hong Kong are level on four points each from two matches; Uzbekistan have three points from two outings and Bangladesh have none after two matches.
The statistic is also not in favour of Bangladesh, whose senior side could only hold Hong Kong to a 2-2 draw in one of the four matches they have played so far since 1975.
In the last two meetings, Bangladesh lost to Hong Kong 1-0 and 2-0 during the 2006 World Cup pre-qualifying matches.
According to a message from assistant coach Saiful Bari Titu, Bangladesh may field fresh legs against Hong Kong as midfielder Imtiaz Sultan Jitu will miss the game due to his illness while goalkeeper Aminul Haque will play the group final game, despite illness.
