Bangladesh skipper Jamal Bhuiyan feels that his team has a decent chance to participate in the semifinals of the regional tournament that will take place in Bengaluru, India from June 21 to July 4, despite the fact that they have failed in their previous five tries to go beyond the group round of the SAFF Championship. The competition will take place between June 21 and July 4.
Jamal informed media on Sunday at the reporting of the members of the preliminary team, which would start training the following day at Bashundhara Kings Arena. “Our first target is to qualify for the semifinals,” Jamal said. “That is our primary objective.”
Jamal feels that the second match is very essential for Bangladesh in order for them to get to the semifinals of the tournament. Bangladesh were put in Group B with the top-ranked team in the competition, Lebanon, as well as Maldives and Bhutan.
“I believe that the encounter against the Maldives will serve as our championship match. Even though Lebanon will be in terrific form after playing four matches [in India] shortly before the commencement of the SAFF Championship, it will be good for us if we get one point against Lebanon.
If we can pull off a victory in the first game, [which is] against Lebanon, then our confidence will skyrocket and carry us through the rest of the tournament. Jamal emphasized the significance of the first two matches for their impact on the team’s chances of advancing to the semifinals.
Jamal responded as follows when asked how people could have confidence in this team despite their poor performance against Seychelles in the recent past: “I don’t care about others’ confidence, rather we have to find out our own confidence of how we can win, how we can secure points which is an inside-matter of the team and the coach and the players are involved.”
“We must bring confidence in ourselves in the next 15 days and this time is really crucial for us and we have to show that we can also do something good which will really be good for the country and the players,” said Jamal, who lauded young players like Faisal Ahmed Fahim, Sheikh Morsalin, and others. “We have to show that we can also do something good which will really be good for the country and the players,” Jamal concluded.
I have been playing with Fahim for the past five years, and throughout that time I have watched him develop into a mature player who is currently doing well for Abahani. The captain of the Bangladesh team shared his opinion that “He has good quality and can change the fate of the match.”