In the 2018 SAFF Championship, which will take place from June 21 to July 4 in Bengaluru, India, Bangladesh has been placed in a group that is relatively less difficult than the others.
After today’s draw in India, Bangladesh will compete against Lebanon, the defending champion Maldives, and Bhutan in Group B. This group also includes the other two champions of the tournament.
Pakistan is the lowest-ranked team in the competition, and they are competing in Group A against eight-time winners India, a squad that is making its tournament debut, energetic Nepal, and Kuwait.
Following the completion of the matches in the round-robin league format, the top two teams from each group will move on to the semifinals. Bangladesh, who have not advanced past the group stage in any of the previous five iterations of the competition, have a decent chance of making it to the semifinal stage this time around. This is due to the fact that the men in red and green have recently triumphed against Bhutan and Maldives.
Because India is hosting the tournament, they were awarded a bye into Group A, and the first-time participants Lebanon were put into Group B.
On the basis of the FIFA ranking, the remaining six teams were divided up into three separate pots, and then lotteries were held to determine which teams would be placed in which groups. The lotteries were conducted by the general secretary of SAFF, Anwarul Haq Helal; the president of the All Indian Football Federation, Kalyan Choubery; and the secretary general of AIIF, Shaji Prabhakaran.