Bangladesh locks horn with Turkmenistan tomorrow

Dhaka, 10 June - Bangladesh will face upper ranked Turkmenistan in their second group E game of AFC Asian Cup qualifiers scheduled to be held tomorrow (Saturday) at the Bukit Jalil National Stadium in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Private satellite channel Ten-Sports will telecast the match live that kicks off at 3.15 pm (BST).
 
Ahead of the match Bangladesh head coach Javier Cabrera was found optimistic with his boys' performance in tomorrow's (Saturday) match against Turkmenistan.

Addressing at a pre-match press conference, the Bangladesh coach said boys were very competitive in the last game and they are prepared to take the challenge of Turkmenistan.

Replying to a question, he said they would take to the field to win the match though Turkmenistan are a very strong side 54 steps ahead than Bangladesh in FIFA ranking.

Skipper Jamal Bhuyan said: "Off course we believe we can win ...... we have to do it ..... we have worked hard ...... we have courage ..... we have to have confidence ...... by doing this things we will have good chance,” said Jamal when asked what is the target about the Saturday's match.

The Bangladesh skipper, who is found very happy with the results of his team's last two games, said the new coach just has taken the charge of the team and started some changes which were not seen before. The new coach is very brilliant and very helpful for the player.

Both teams started their qualifiers campaign with defeats. Bangladesh ranked 188 by FIFA went down a fighting 0-2 to mighty Bahrain, while Turkmenistan who currently ranked 134 by FIFA were beaten 3-1 by host Malaysia. Bangladesh has not qualified for the finals since 1980, which remains their only appearance in the competition.

Though the boys in red and green usually play well on home turf but struggled against Bahrain in their qualifiers opener. They conceded twice in quick succession and were unable to bounce back after that. The Jamal Bhuyan and Co. however came to the field with more organized way in the second half and did not allow Bahrain to commit any further damage.

Credit must go to Bangladesh custodian Anisur Rahman Zico who was superb under the bar and foiled number of Bahrain's scoring opportunities. Coach Javier Cabrera must be looking forward for the same performance from him against Turkmenistan.

The main concern of coach Javier Fernandez Cabrera is to improve on the attacking output of his players because his boys Bangladesh have not scored in last four games they have played in 2022, conceding four goals and keeping two clean sheets.

The two teams have met just once before the Saturday's match, in the Asian Games 2002, which Turkmenistan won by 3-1 goals.