DHAKA – Bangladesh national football team’s skipper Jamal Bhuyan today said they are very serious about the second football friendly match against Nepal because it bears a great importance for them.
“The second match is very important for us .. we‘ll have to forget what happened in the first match … we are very serious and go for win against Nepal,” said the Bangladesh skipper to the pressmen in a virtual pre match press conference held today.
Bangladesh will take on Nepal in the second and final friendly match of ‘Mujib Barsho’ FIFA friendly series scheduled to be held tomorrow (Tuesday) at Bangabandhu National Stadium. The hosts already lead the series 1-0.
I think Nepal will attack us with all their strength and we’ll have to counter those, added Jamal.
Replying to a question the Bangladesh skipper said winning a match always increases the confidence level which is needed prior to the Qatar match so the match against Nepal is very important.
Evaluating the first match, Jamal said they played the first half very well. In the first half and more goals could come while in a few portions of the second half the team failed to play up to the mark.
Jamal said if coach Jamie’s would not be able to stay with the team for his illness in the second match, his absence would not impact on the team’s performance because it’s their duty to follow the instructions of their coach.
Asked whether it would have been better to play friendly matches against a tough team before the Qatar match, Jamal informed that the team’s head coach already conveyed this message to BFF to arrange friendly matches with tough opponents before the Bangladesh’s FIFA World Cup qualifying round match against host Qatar.
Assistant coach Stuart Watkiss said Jamie will be back in charge of the team if his test result comes negative and if the result becomes positive, then the head coach will concentrate for recovery.
Commenting about the Nepal team, the assistant coach of the team said Nepal have good individual players but it’s also a big challenge for the team.
The assistant coach hoped that they would be able to win the second match and before the Qatar engagement they were aiming to finish with a win.
Team’s stand-in manager Amer Khan said they would take to the field tomorrow with a hope to win the match and upbeat to continue their winning trend against Nepal.BSS
