Bangladesh national football team is beaming with confidence after their morale-boosting 1-1 draw against tournament favourites India in their 2021 SAFF Championship league phase match at the National Football Stadium in Maldives, Male on Monday.
\nThe draw was even sweeter for Oscar Bruzon\u2019s charges as they did it with 10-man and a goal down.
\nBangladesh started their campaign in the five-nation tournament with a solitary goal victory against Sri Lanka on October 1 before the draw against seven-time champions India, who are 82 places ahead of Bangladesh in FIFA rankings.
\nBruzon\u2019s charges remain unbeaten and are in second place of the table with four points, two points behind table toppers Nepal, who beat Sri Lanka 3-2 on Monday after a 1-0 win against hosts and defending champions Maldives in their first match.
\nWith one point, India are placed third ahead of Maldives as both played one match each while Sri Lanka are unofficially out of the race to the final with two losses.
\nWith the draw against India, the men in red and green have now started to believe that they could go further in the tournament.
\nTheir next two games are against Maldives and Nepal respectively on October 7 and 13 at the same venue.
\nAgainst Sri Lanka and India, defenders Topu Barman and Yeasin Arafat scored one goal each. Bangladesh forward Matin Mia said that the team\u2019s strikers are inspired by the defenders contribution in the first two matches and are keen to take up the goal-scoring onus from the next game.
\n\u2018The results are a huge boost and it has increased my confidence level. Goals from defenders are inspiring for us [forwards]. They did it in the last two games, now it\u2019s our time to show that we can do it too,\u2019 said Matin after Tuesday\u2019s training session at the Henveiru Training Pitch in Male.
\nBangladesh will miss the services of two defenders against the Maldives \u2014 Bishwanath Ghosh, who got a red card in the 54th minute against India, and Razaul Karim, who is suffering from fever.
\nMeanwhile, Bruzon, who has been given the national team\u2019s charges for this tournament in place of English coach Jamie Day, seemed overjoyed in his comments after the hard fought draw on Monday.
\n\u2018I want to say that Bangladesh football is alive, so let\u2019s go and get more points from the tournament\u2026We believe in our players and our country\u2026We are going to play a very tough opponent, the Maldives, in the next match,\u2019 said Bruzon in the post-match press conference.
\n\u2018We said before that every problem we have should make us stronger and that\u2019s what I am trying to communicate [to the players], that we are an unbeatable force when we play with one mind,\u2019 continued Bruzon.
\nIndian coach Igor Stimac congratulated Bangladesh for the draw terming the game as an interesting one.
\n\u2018It was a good and interesting match and I want to congratulate both India and Bangladesh for presenting a nice match here.\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bangladesh national football team is beaming with confidence after their morale-boosting 1-1 draw against tournament favourites India in their 2021 SAFF Championship league phase match at the National Football Stadium in Maldives, Male on Monday. The draw was even sweeter for Oscar Bruzon\u2019s charges<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":0,"_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[81,11055],"yoast_head":"\n