Home ›› 18 May 2023 ›› Sport
Bangladesh Men’s Football Team will have an uphill battle in the upcoming SAFF Championship 2023 as they try to end their 14-year wait of reaching the knockout stage.
The Red and Greens, placed in Group B, are with Lebanon, the highest-ranked team in the tournament at 99th, Maldives, who are at 154th, and Bhutan, who are ranked at 185th. Bangladesh currently sit on 192nd, the second-lowest among the participating teams, only second to Pakistan, who are at 195.
The other group consists of hosts India, Kuwait, Nepal, and Pakistan.
Bangladesh will start their SAFF campaign with the most difficult tie as they will face Lebanon on June 22 at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium in Bengaluru before taking on Maldives on June 25. They will conclude their group stage on June 28 against Bhutan.
They will fancy their chances versus Bhutan, against whom they have lost only once in their whole history. However, it will be tricky against Maldives, who beat Bangladesh in the last edition.
Despite being drawn into a difficult group, Bangladesh head coach Javier Cabrera is upbeat about their chances.
“The first impression is that it’s a challenging group. We got the highest-ranked team in the tournament. We are quite positive after the draw. If we can perform at the level we have to, we will have our chances,” he told the media on Wednesday.
The Spaniard added, “We believe that going game-by-game, we will have chances to qualify. We are positive about the draw. Both groups are quite challenging. But we keep believing. We keep hoping that we can achieve the glory.”
The last time Bangladesh qualified for the knockouts of the SAFF Championship was 2009, and Cabrera hoped that they would be able to reach the levels they need to reach the semis.
