Bangladesh national football team will face Malaysia in their last match in the Asian Cup qualifying round today at the Bukit Jalil Stadium, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Bangladesh team are yet to taste any win and even could have at least a draw when they suffered defeat in their previous two matches against Bahrain and Turkmenistan.
Today it will be the toughest challenge for Bangladesh when they will have to face the host, who will play with home advantage backing by of 65000 crowds.
Though the previous opponents Bahrain and Turkmenistan were also higher in FIFA rank but for Bangladesh team today’s match against Malaysia will be more difficult, as they will have to play match in a different atmosphere.
Malaysian (154) defeated Turkmenistan (134), 20 times better in FFIA ranking by 3-1, when the visitors were just outplayed with the home sides were playing with full domination.
Bahrain, who are the highest ranking side in the Group E struggled much against Malaysia just to escape with a 2-1 win after coming from a goal down, so, it is not hard to imagine that how much tough it would be for Bangladesh.
However, Bangladesh team will face Malaysia with some courage when they are certainly morally high, gaining the courage from their previous two games, despite losing both the matches.
Against Bahrain it was 2-0 defeat (were scored in first half), but fought up to 90 minutes to stop the 100 times better than in FIFA ranked team, the stronger opponents, who narrowly missed the FIFA World Cup 2022 final.
In the second match, it was very much disappointing for Bangladesh to suffer defeat but not to win against Turkmenistan, when in the full 90 minutes game Bangladesh played better football and also opened better scoring chances also. But the fortune did not favoure the Red and Green when despite creating some close ranges chances failed to score goals and finally had to concede the 2-1 defeat.
Though the previous two matches are the tale of failures but the commitments and fighting spirit to through challenge up to last whistle are the inspiration for today’s match, as Rakib and Ibrahim expressed their determination on Monday to the media.
Since 1975 in the Mardeka Cup, in their previous nine times meeting Bangladesh won one match, drew two and suffered defeat in rest of six matches when the last two matches in 2012 (2-2) and 2015 (0-0) were drawn.
