Dhaka – Bangladesh National Football team, currently in Thailand for a 10-day preparation camp, held their first practice session on Saturday morning.
The 1.5 hour session started at 9am at the Air Force Football ground in Bangkok, followed by a swimming and recovery session.
Bangladesh are scheduled to play two preparatory matches against Thai Premier League clubs – Air Force United FC on May 28 and BG Pathum United FC on June 1.
A 31-member Bangladesh team flew to Bangkokon Friday to prepare for their home and away basis joint qualifications for FIFA World Cup 2022 and AFC Asian Cup 2023 against Laos.
The away match is scheduled for June 6 at 5:30pm (BdST) at National Stadium in Vientiane. The home match will take place on June 11 at 7pm at Bangabandhu National Stadium in Dhaka.
Twelve Asian teams – six seeded teams (ranked 35th to 40th in AFC) against the six unseeded teams (ranked 41st to 46th in AFC) – will participate in round-1 of both tournaments.
The teams are – Bangladesh, Laos, Mongolia, Brunei Darussalam, Macau, Sri Lanka, Laos, Malaysia, Timor-Leste, Cambodia, Pakistan, Bhutan and Guam.
Six teams from here will join top 34 Asian teams in the round-2 qualifiers, scheduled to be held in September.
Bangladesh ranked 188th and 41st in the FIFA International Ranking and AFC Ranking respectively while Laos remained 184th and 38th.
In their last meeting in the group stage of Bangabandhu Gold Cup, Bangladesh beat Laos by 1-0 goal in Sylhet in October last year.
In the previous two meetings, Bangladesh lost to Laos by 1-2 goals in the first round of the Asian Cup in Hong Kong in March 2003 and had a 2-2 draw in a FIFA international friendly in Vientiane last year.
Bangladesh squad: Tutul Hosain Badsha, Mamunul Islam Mamun, Sohel Rana, Ashraful Islam Rana, Anisur Rahman Zico, Yeasin Khan, Bishwanath Ghosh, Jamal Bhuyan (C), Rahmat Mia, Mohammad Ibrahim, Biplu Ahmed, Masuk Mia Jony, Sushanto Tripura, Md Rabiul Hasan, Nabib Newaj Ziban, Tawhidul Alam Sabuz, Riyadul Hasan, Matin Miah, Md Mazharul Islam.UNB
