Home ›› 11 Jun 2022 ›› Sport
Bangladesh coach Javier Cabrera and skipper Jamal Bhuyan have both put the onus on scoring goals ahead of their encounter against Turkmenistan today at the Bukit Jalil Stadium in Malaysia.
The Red and Green are going through a goal drought as they have failed to find the net in their last three matches under Cabrera’s reign.
Cabrera is yet to win his first match as head coach but a mountainous challenge awaits the Spaniard as they will once again have to punch above their weight against a Turkmenistan side, that is 54 places above Bangladesh in World Rankings, to put points on the board and keep hopes of qualification alive.
“We got some time for the technical staff to analyze our strengths and the things we need to improve for the next game. We analyzed Turkmenistan’s game against Malaysia and we are going to get recharged and get ready for tomorrow’s (today) challenge, which is going to be a beautiful challenge and an important chance for us to get something against Turkmenistan,” Cabrera said in the pre-match press conference on Friday.
The 37-year-old Spanish coach admitted that his side has to improve in attack and assured that they would go for the kill against Turkmenistan.
“We always aim to win obviously but again the main objective is always to be competitive. We have been very competitive in the last two games and the main goal would be to keep that. If we are able to keep that line of forwards disciplined, I’m convinced we are going to have chances tomorrow,” he said.
“We know we need to improve things in attack and that is where we will try to improve, he added.
Bangladesh lost their AFC Asian Cup Qualifiers opener against Bahrain on Wednesday by 2-0 but their performance in that game and the game before against Indonesia have been positive.
Jamal assured that they were aware of that and made peace with the result against 89th ranked Bahrain and were looking ahead to overcome the Turkmenistan challenge.
“The people of Bangladesh have been proud of us after the last two games,” he said on Friday.
“I think the squad are okay with the result. Of course everybody wants to win but now we have to forget about that match and we have to look forward to tomorrow’s match against Turkmenistan,” he added.
Jamal identified their issue with goal scoring and said that he believed his side can come out on top against 134th-ranked Turkmenistan.
“Of course, we believe we can win but we cannot just win by saying it, we have to do it. We have to work hard, we have to have courage. We have to have confidence and by doing these things we can have a good chance, he said.
“Everybody can improve but of course, we haven’t scored for a while. We have to score goals to win a match,” he added.
The 32-year-old midfielder expects a tough contest against a strong and physical Turkmenistan side and said that they would have to prepare better to tackle the challenges in set-pieces.
“I saw them as a physical team, a strong team and also good at set-pieces. We have to reduce giving away set-pieces and that’s what I’m thinking about at the moment. They are much higher in the rankings than us and we expect a tough game,” he said.
On a personal note, Jamal is on the brink of creating history as with an appearance against Turkmenistan today, he will break the record for most caps for Bangladesh. He is currently level on 64 appearances with Zahid Hasan Ameli.
Turkmenistan, who have played in the AFC Asian Cup on two occasions previously, locked horns against Bangladesh on one occasion before, dating back to October of 2002.
Bangladesh lost the match 3-1 in the 2002 Asian Games.
Cabrera’s men will face hosts Malaysia in their last match of the group stage on June 14 at the same venue.
