The Bangladesh Under-23 national football team will face Nepal Under-23 national team at the Banani Army Stadium today in a practice match to test their strength ahead of the Asian Games in Korea. The game provides Bangladesh a perfect opportunity to tighten their defence that leaked four goals against Bangladesh Army in a warm-up match at the same venue three days ago.
A 24-member Nepal squad was scheduled to arrive in Dhaka at 10:40pm on Monday night after being delayed for a few hours.
The second tier FIFA friendly will be the first international match in Bangladesh in three years, which came after the World Cup pre-qualifying match against Lebanon, a game that Bangladesh won 2-0 in 2011.
Bangladesh will take today’s match very seriously as they lost to Nepal two times in their last three meetings respectively in 2011 and 2013 SAFF Championships.
Bangladesh’s only win against Nepal in the recent time came in the AFC Challenge Cup last year.
Bangladesh began their preparation camp for Asian Games earlier this month and played three practice matches so far and on each occasion their defense proved to be shaky.
Rene Koster, the assistant coach, however, was hopeful that his defenders will give a better display today.
‘Some players [defenders] made too many mistakes but they have to learn quickly in order to avoid repeating those mistakes,’ Rene told the reporters on Sunday.
‘I have faith in them. I’m hundred per cent sure they will do better against Nepal,’ he added.
Bangladesh will be hoping that attacking line up consisting Wahed Ahmed and Aminur Rahman Shajib will also give Nepal a run for their money.
‘The strikers are working very hard. When we play three forwards in 4-3-3 formation then shajib is real number 9. Toklis, Sifat and Wahed can play on the sides,’ said Rene in pre-match pressure on Sunday.
Skipper Mamunul Islam will be the main architect in the midfield along with Sohel Rana and Hemanta Vincent Biswas.
Bangladesh’s Dutch head coach Lodewijk de Kruif is expected to return from his week-long vacation today morning to take the charge in the match.
Nepal named squad consisting seven players who had experiences of playing in the last SAFF Championship.
Meanwhile, the tickets for the friendly, priced Tk 20, will be found at the venue before the game, which will start at 4:00pm
Bangladesh Television will telecast the match live.
The second friendly match will be played in Sylhet on August 29.
-With New Age input
