The 2023 SAFF Championship will begin in Bangalore, India today as Bangladesh prepare to reach the knockouts for the first time in six editions.
Bangladesh will not take part on the opening day as the day will belong to Group A fixtures while the Red and Greens are in Group B.
The opening day will see Kuwait face Nepal in the opening game, while hosts India will take on Pakistan later on the day.
Bangladesh’s first match will be against 99-ranked Lebanon on Thursday, followed by matches against Maldives on June 25 and against Bhutan on June 28.
Bangladesh came into this tournament after preparing in Dhaka and Cambodia, where they beat the Cambodian National Team 1-0 in a FIFA friendly.
Their head coach, Javier Cabrera, believes his team has prepared well enough ahead of the showcase tournament.
“For us, it has been two weeks of preparation. First in Dhaka for around seven days, and then we moved to Cambodia, where we managed to play a couple of games, one against a local club and one against their national team. We came here with a positive mentality. The team is ready, the atmosphere around the team is good, a lot of excitement and a lot of motivation and ready to face the strong teams in the group stage,” he said in a press conference on Tuesday.
Bangladesh have failed to reach the knockout stage in each of the last five editions but the Spaniard is hopeful of achieving the feat this time around.
“I think the competition in this group is going to be very, very tough. All of us want to qualify. All of us think we have a chance to go further. For us, it’s quite important because it has been five editions without qualifying for the semi-finals. And we do believe that by following our ideas we may have the chance,” he said.
