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Bangladesh takes on host Indonesia today in FIFA friendly


Published : 31 May 2022 08:48 PM

All sports fans of Bangladesh will focus on Jakarta today, as it will be a different day for the national football and hockey team when they will play their respective international match on same day in Indonesia.

The football match will kick off at 7:30pm Bangladesh time at the Si Jalak Harupat Stadium in Bandung city of West Java, Indonesia and the hockey match will take at the GBK Hockey field in Jakarta.

Bangladesh football team will play their FIFA friendly against Indonesia and national hockey team will face Pakistan to secure the fifth place in the ongoing Asia Cup hockey competition.

The football team, on their way to Kuala Lumpur to play Asia Cup qualifiers will play the FIFA match and hockey team will play their last match of the Asia Cup Hockey.

However, Bangladesh will meet Indonesia after more than a decade when the two teams faced last each others in 2008 also in a FIFA friendly when Bangladesh suffered 2-0 defeat. 

Bangladesh in their six previous encounters against Indonesia since 1975 in Mardeka Football tournament, Bangladesh won only one time in 1985 in a FIFA World Cup (1986) qualifier by 2-1 and Indonesia had four wins when another match was one all draw in Quaid-E-Azam international football tournament.

Bangladesh’s head coach Javier Fernandez Cabrera and the captain Jamal Bhuiyan both of them are right now fully concentrating on today’s match but essentially they are looking forward to Asia Cup qualifying competition to be held in Malaysia, as both of them put across their objectives before to departure for Jakarta.

The Spanish coach yet to taste a win, as the national team could not shine in two matches played under him when Bangladesh suffered a 2-0 defeat to Maldives and drew 0-0 with Mongolia in the FIFA international friendly affairs.

Therefore, Cabrera is looking to end the winning draught and a good result against Indonesia and that will be an inspiration for the coach and for the players.  

 So a win in today’s FIFA friendly match will pledge the team to be morally up before the Asia Cup. 

A victory will round off a campaign, if they could win the game and that’s all that the coach concerned about.

But the reality is that it would appear very tough to have expected result as Cabrera was forced to leave the country with huge setback with missing six important players of the most probable starting line-up – Tarek Kazi, Topu Barman, Nabib Newaz Jibon, Sumon Reza, Masuk Miah Jony and Matin Miah,   

Specially, missing Jibon, Sumon Reza and Matin Miah, the squad will suffer a quite brilliant attacking output while in absence of Tapu Barman and Tarek Kazi it would be a feeble back-line.

Captain Jamal Bhuiyan, who has confident on the squad they have now said, “Of course those players were out of the squad are the big names in our domestic competitions. But those who are coming into the squad will give more than hundred percent to show their efforts to the team. I believe the new players also can make difference in the team.”

Coach also has confidence on the players are at hand, who replaced the missing performers, as he sad, “My assessment is that all players are ready but the injuries are part of the game, so out of 32 players, six to seven players have no injuries but we have another six to seven players. It is not a problem. Sazzad Hossain is proper nine, we have other Sufil, who can play in number nine. We have players like Maraz Opi who can play as false nine or second forward, so we don’t have any concerned with forwards.”