After salvaging a draw in the nick of time in the first leg of their first-round matchup in the FIFA World Cup Asian qualifiers, Bangladesh will now want to defeat the higher-ranked Maldives in the return leg of their matchup today. This matchup is the return leg of their first-round matchup.
At 5:45 p.m., the action will get underway at the Bashundhara Kings Arena, and T Sports will be there to broadcast the match live.
There is a lot on the line for both of the teams competing in the match because if they are successful, they will advance to the second round and be guaranteed to play a total of six more matches there. On the other hand, if they suffer a loss, their participation in the World Cup qualifiers will come to an end.
On Thursday, the first leg took place in Male and concluded in a nail-biting 1-1 tie. Hassan Nazeem of the Maldives scored the game’s only goal in the 87th minute, but Bangladesh’s substitute Saad Uddin equalised the score in the very next minute of stoppage time.
At the pre-match briefing yesterday, Bangladesh coach Jaiver Cabrera remarked, “This is the moment to show everyone what we have been doing in the last two years, especially in the last year.”
“By accomplishing a significant goal, we hope to demonstrate to our employees and supporters that we care about them. The Spaniard continued, “I believe that we are capable enough to make it, and that is the message that I am sending to the players.”
Cabrera, who did not make any changes to his 23-man squad for the game, lauded his team’s performance against Maldives in the first leg and expressed optimism that they may advance to the next round.
“We made opportunities, but we also blew some of them… We are looking forward to the game with a lot of optimism. The responsibility for scoring goals is with us. “We are positive that we will be successful in achieving our goal,” Cabrera stated further.
Captain Jamal Bhuiyan referred to the home game as the “match of the year” and stated that his team is motivated to walk away from the stadium with a win.
“Over the past three days, we have made a full recovery. Therefore, the game won’t start for a little while longer. It is a really important match for us, and it is also the last match of the year, so there is a lot riding on it. “No matter what happens, we have to come out on top of this match,” remarked Jamal.
Jamal further urged supporters to show up in large numbers to cheer on the squad for the pivotal matchup against the opponent that was placed 34 places higher than them.
It is our home turf, and we have to make the most of the fact that we are playing there. It is imperative that we have support behind us… I believe that everything the players need will be available to them tomorrow.
“Everything is in place, and this is the decisive match. There will be no justifications, and the goal is to come out on top,” Jamal stated further.
But the Maldives coach, Ali Suzain, believes that the pitch quality at the Kings Arena will be more favourable to his team than it would be to the other.
We are a team that keeps the ball and plays according to the situation, thus we will have an edge over Bangladesh in the upcoming match at Kings Arena, which will be played under football conditions. This field is superior to our national stadium, and we will be able to play more passing football here because of it.