Second Bangladesh-Sri Lanka FIFA friendly at Rajshahi today
Bangladesh will be keen for overcome their striking frailty and seal the series with a win when they take on Sri Lanka in their second FIFA friendly match in Rajshahi today.
With the match, Rajshahi’s Muktijuddho Smirity Stadium will make its debut as an international venue making it the third venue after Sylhet and Jessore from outside the capital to get such recognition.
Channel 9 will telecast live the match at 3:00pm.
Like Sylhet and Jessore, which hosted Nepal Under-23 team and Sri Lanka respectively in recent time, people of Rajshahi are eager to witness an international game 14 years after the city hosted AFC Under-19 qualifying round in 2000.
The hosts squandered a host of opportunities to win the first game at Jessore, leaving this match to end their long winning drought.
And they want to do it without compromising their style, which coach Saiful Bari Titu said ‘entertaining’.
‘Every coach feels the pressure when his charges fail to win,’ said the interim coach on Sunday. ‘We want to entertain the fans as well as win the game.’
Titu is still remorseful for wasting so many chances in the first game.
‘Normally we don’t get that type of chances regularly at international level,’ he said. ‘It could have been different scenario for us today if had we had utilised the chances.’
Titu hinted some changes in his starting line-up for today’s match.
In the first game, Titu picked Monaym Khan Raju in place of
in-form midfielder Sohel Rana and used expatriate Jamal Bhuiyan as a substitute.
Both Sohel and Jamal are expected to start today in place of Raju and Yasin Ahmed. Forward Mithun Chowdhury could miss the game due to some illness.
‘Sohel suffered some vision problem while training with his club and Jamal was not fully fit for the first match due to a long journey,’ said coach Titu.
‘Both may play from the start. Mithun has some illness, so he will be replaced by someone else.’
Sri Lankan coach Nikola Kavazovic indicated he will resort to the same strategy that he applied in Jessore.
The visitors were happy with the draw in the first match after they applied a defensive strategy,though he thinks that today’s game with be tougher as the hosts now know his team’s s strengths and weaknesses .
‘Bangladesh played almost perfectly in the first match and they are a very strong side and they also will get the full home support,’ said Kavajovic, who thanked his charges for not losing their concentration in the first match despite crowd pressure.
-With New Age input
