Reaching the semifinals of this competition was Bangladesh’s goal for the SAFF Championship, and they have already accomplished this goal.
But after giving rousing displays in their last two group games against Maldives and Bhutan, Jamal Bhuiyan and company are now seeking to go even further as they take on Kuwait, who is undoubtedly the hardest team in the league, in today’s first semifinal match at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium in Bengaluru.
As a result of securing a spot in the semifinals of the regional football spectacular for the first time in 14 years, the troops led by Javier Cabrera are bubbling with self-assurance. Now that they’ve made it this far, the booters have their sights set on the championship match, which Bangladesh hasn’t competed in since 2005, when it was held in Pakistan.
It will not be easy for Bangladesh to end an 18-year wait to reach the SAFF final. This is especially true when considering how Kuwait have outplayed Pakistan and Nepal before shown grit to make a miraculous comeback against hosts India in the group stage.
Kuwait is ranked 141 in the FIFA rankings, which is 40 and 38 places below India and Lebanon, respectively, due to various internal problems including a two-year FIFA suspension and for forfeiting the Asian Cup from 2015 to 2017, but the team that won the Asian Cup in 1985 has certainly shown that they are a force to be reckoned with in this SAFF Championship. In fact, Kuwait is currently in first place in the tournament.
In recent history, they have achieved victory over formidable opponents like as Tajikistan, the Philippines, and the United Arab Emirates. Additionally, they played Bahrain to a draw, and they have not been defeated in any of their past seven matches.
It only demonstrates that today’s semifinal matchup between the men in red and green and the middle eastern side, who were more active in pushing India, will be a difficult one for the men in red and green to win. The challenge for Bangladesh will be to keep such critical matters under control.
“The problem is one that we must face together as a group. We can’t avoid dealing with it any longer. We need to be aggressive, but we can’t let that dictate how we play the game. We don’t want to play their game, therefore we have to keep our attention on ourselves and work hard to prevent ourselves from giving up goals.
To be successful, both our offense and defense would need to be strong. Jamal Bhuiyan, the captain of the team, stated during the pre-match briefing on Friday that the team should first concentrate on themselves.
“I believe that the team is confident, similar to how they were previously, but they are not overly confident. As a result of Kuwait’s performance against India, I believe that all of us here have a great deal of respect for them. Despite this, we have faith in our abilities since we have a strong team of players who are capable of competing and accomplishing anything.
We are able to proceed. Jamal has confirmed that despite the possibility that the players are physically fatigued, the team’s mental preparation for the encounter against Kuwait is at a hundred per cent.
The match can come down to a fight between the strikers for Kuwait and the defense for Bangladesh. Kuwait has scored eight goals in three matches so far, and it appears that the fate of the competition might come down to how effectively the Bangladeshi defense can stop the Kuwaiti strikers from scoring.
“Of course, it is a duel between the defense line of Bangladesh and the forwards of Kuwait. At the same time, there will also be a duel between the strikers from Bangladesh and the defenders from Kuwait.
We are going to attempt to push our limitations and have a fifty-fifty struggle because our objective is to win tomorrow,” said Bangladesh’s Spanish coach Cabrera, who is expected to introduce a few changes into the team during the last preparation period on Friday afternoon. “We are going to try to push our limits and have a fifty-fifty battle because our target is to win tomorrow.”
“The players are working hard to get as much rest as they can in order to prepare for their match against Bhutan on Wednesday. [On Friday afternoon] we will get together for a practice to get ready for the game that will be played on Saturday. “We are ready and excited to face Kuwait in the semifinals after such a long time, and [I am] convinced that we can give a very good fight and try our best to get to the final,” said Cabrera.
“We have been waiting a very long time for this opportunity, and we are ready to take advantage of it.”
Cabrera feels that it is difficult to come from behind in every game, despite the fact that Bangladesh produced two amazing comebacks against Maldives and Bhutan in order to clinch a berth in the semifinals.
“It goes without saying that we don’t want to give up goals right away in this match. The day after tomorrow is going to be very significant for us, and we are going to be concentrating from the very beginning on putting an end to the trailing Kuwait and doing everything we can to avoid getting back into that scenario.
If we find ourselves in such a predicament, we will need to battle once again since we have the experience of coming back from behind in the two games that came before this one. However, we should try to avoid getting into a scenario like this when we play Kuwait,” the coach, who is 38 years old, stated.
First, Bangladesh was defeated by Kuwait with a score of 1-2 at the Merdeka Cup in Malaysia in 1973. Then, Bangladesh was humiliated by Kuwait with a score of 0-4 during the Asian Games in 1986. Since then, Bangladesh has not had another encounter with Kuwait in those 36 years.
However, under the direction of Dutch coach Rene Koster, the Bangladesh U-19 squad was victorious in their match against Kuwait in the 2013 AFC U-19 Championship Qualifiers.