Bangladesh’s leader, Jamal Bhuiyan, thinks that his team’s new look gives them a chance to get out of the group stage of the FIFA World Cup Qualifiers. On November 16, they will play their first game against Australia in Melbourne.
The guys in red and green beat the Maldives 3-2 overall in the pre-qualifiers. They are now in Group I with Australia, Lebanon, and Palestine. The top two teams from this group will move on to the third round of the World Cup Qualifiers from Asia.
Bangladesh hasn’t won any of their last 16 World Cup qualifiers, but Jamal thinks his team has a better chance this time because they are better prepared for the obstacles.
The captain told reporters at a press meeting on Thursday, before the team left for Australia on Friday, “I think our chances are better this time because I said before that this team is better than the last ones.”
“We’ve already played Lebanon this year and had chances to win.” We understand who we are and what we can do. “I think we have a great chance, especially against Palestine and Lebanon, and we want to make the most of it,” he said.
Bangladesh only tied three times in the last two World Cup qualifiers, against Tajikistan, India, and Afghanistan. They lost 13 other games, including ones against Australia, Jordan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Qatar, Oman, India, and Afghanistan.
In 2015, Bangladesh lost badly to Australia twice, 5-0 and 4-0, in the 2018 World Cup Qualifiers.
James, on the other hand, thinks that the current Bangladesh team is much better than the one that lost to Australia eight years ago.
“I believe this team is very different from the one that played against Australia in 2015.” We are not at all like we were in the last game when it comes to how we study and train.
“That team didn’t have a permanent coach when they played Australia.” Things are different this time, though. We know what we want and how to beat them this time. It’s clear that this team is very different from the one that played in 2015, Jamal said.
In the match against Australia in the round of 16 at the Qatar World Cup, the leader told his team not to be scared of their opponents.
“The bottom line is that we want to give something in the game [against Australia] and do well. That will motivate us to do well when we play Lebanon at home.” Our team knows that Australia is one of the best and toughest in Asia. We need to have faith in ourselves and not let that get to us when we play in Melbourne.
Jamal also thinks that Bangladesh can go to the next level if they keep going strong.
“Bangladesh football has been going in the right direction, and we need to keep it going.” We can move on to the next level if we stay on track. We’ve already drawn with Afghanistan and Kuwait. Which means we can go up against them. We need to keep this beat. “It will be hard for Bangladesh football if we don’t do that,” the 33-year-old leader said.
Bangladesh’s first game in the Qualifiers will be on November 16 in Melbourne against Australia. On November 21, they will play Lebanon at the Bashundhara Kings stadium.