Bangladesh are all set to start their SAFF Championship mission as they face Sri Lanka in one of the opening day’s
matches scheduled to be held today (Friday) at National Football Stadium in Male, the capital of Maldives.

Private satellite channel T-Sports telecasts the match live that kicks off at 5pm (BST) instead of 10 pm (BST) as scheduled earlier.

In the day’s other of opening day’s fixture, Nepal will take on defending champions host Maldives that begins at 10 pm (BST) at the same venue.

Maximum five thousand spectators will be allowed to enter the stadium to enjoy the tournament opening match. In this case, all spectators will have to carry the certificates of Covid-19 vaccination.

It’ll be the first assignment for national football team’s interim head coach Oscar Bruzon, who has been given the charge of the SAFF Championship with a hope to secure the second SAFF title.

Before begin the journey in the SAFF Championship in the Maldives, the Bangladesh national football team engaged themselves in some friendly matches. After the 3-0 loss to Oman in the World Cup Qualifiers in Doha that
ended Bangladesh’s journey of World Cup 2022.

The boys have played two more friendlies against upper ranked Palestine and Kyrgyzstan in the first week of September losing both the matches with a 2-0 and 4-1 respectively.

Addressing at a pre match press conference Bangladesh skipper Jamal Bhuyan said: “We’ll start the game in a positive way in the tomorrow’s (Friday) and hopefully play full ninety minutes positive football … I hope we can do very good and very well against Sri Lanka and hoped to get full three points.”

Replying to a question Jamal said “Off course it’s a good motivation for us as a lot Bangladeshi fans are here to support us … we are very happy for that … in yesterday’s (Wednesday) practice session fans came to watch out the team’s practice which was an extra motivation for us.”

Meanwhile, Bangladesh will miss the service of midfielder Sohel Rana and defender Rezaul Karim, who will not be a part of Bangladesh’s first match against Sri Lanka due to fever.

Ahead of the first match, the Bangladesh has their final training session today afternoon at the Henveiry training pitch under the supervision of Oscar Bruzon.

On the other hand, Sri Lanka has not been able to play any friendlies before they start their campaign in the SAFF Championship, due to Covid-19 restrictions. The Islanders last game was in the second round of Asian World Cup Qualifiers against South Korea with whom they lost a humiliating 5-0 defeat ending their winless journey in the second round of the qualifiers.

Bangladesh squad: Sahidul Alam, Anisur Rahman, Ashraful Islam Rana, Rahmat Mia, Bishwanath Ghosh, Topu Barman, Riyadul Hasan, Yeasin Arafat , Razaul Karim Sohel Rana, Saad Uddin Biplo Ahmed, Jamal Bhuyan , Rakib Hossain , Suman Reza, Tariq Raihan Kazi, Mahbubur Rahman, Mohammad Ibrahim, Matin Miah, Mohammad Atiqur Rahman Fahad, Jewel Rana, Tutul Hosain Badsha and Mohammad Hridoy.