The head coach of the Afghanistan national football team, Abdullah Almutairi, is looking forward to breaking the tie against Bangladesh in one of the two FIFA friendly matches that will take place the following month.
There have been three matches between Bangladesh and Afghanistan played on Bangladeshi soil, and Bangladesh has not yet been defeated by the central Asian nation. However, Afghanistan has a better overall record versus Bangladesh, with two wins in eight meetings compared to Bangladesh’s zero wins in eight matches. Two of those matches took place during the 1980 Asia Cup qualifiers, while the other was a friendly match in 2015.
The first of the two exhibition matches is scheduled to take place on September 4, followed by the second one on September 9, both of which will take place at the Bashundhara Kings Arena.
When it comes to friendly competitions, it does not matter if you win or lose. The fact that we have traveled all the way here to prepare for our World Cup preliminary match against Mongolia is the most essential thing. After the team’s first training session at the Army Police Ground on Monday, Almutairi voiced his opinion that he did not see the point in winning the friendly match if they were going to go on to lose the qualifying match.
However, the head coach, who is 41 years old, stated that he would be satisfied with a victory on Bangladeshi soil.
“I believe that Bangladesh is currently fielding a more capable team. Do not focus on the rating, as this is something that does not always produce accurate results. Even though the Faroe Islands are superior to more than half of the Asian teams, they failed to score a single goal in the European Qualifications.
It is not vital to rank everything; the thing that matters is how well you perform on the ground. I believe that Bangladesh will present us with certain challenges to overcome. Because of our terrible luck in Bangladesh, we have never been able to defeat Bangladesh there. Therefore, it will make me delighted if we are able to turn this run of bad luck around,” the coach remarked.
Afghanistan traveled here with their strongest team possible, including all ten of their players who are stationed outside of Afghanistan. In spite of this, Almutairi gave the impression that he might not utilize all of them against Bangladesh in order to keep their World Cup pre-qualifiers adversaries Mongolia in the dark about their plans.
“I believe the number [of players based in foreign nations] to be ten, and they come from countries like as Germany, Georgia, Australia, and the Netherlands. Almutairi has stated that his team will conceal their guns for the encounter against Mongolia because it is simply a friendly match.
The Kuwaiti acknowledged as well that Bangladesh had made significant progress under the leadership of Javier Cabrera.
“In my opinion, they have made significant progress. Now they can rely on a reliable strategy. Their overall performance has significantly improved. If Jamal (Bhuiyan) is from Argentina, then we already have a good idea of how they will play. And even if Jamal doesn’t show up, we have a good idea of how they’ll play.
We are keeping an eye out for Jamal because every strategy [used by Bangladesh] is centered on him. “We also know that they are very good in one situation and one tactic, so I don’t think they will change it to surprise us,” said Almutairi, who had previously led Nepal to a 1-1 tie against Bangladesh in the 2021 SAFF Championship in Maldives. Bangladesh was the team that Nepal had to face in order to win the championship.
It is anticipated that Jamal would arrive at the airport very early today and will then report to the national team camp later in the day.