Bangladesh ready to take on Tajikistan

Hisor, October 31: The Bangladesh U19 national football team is all set to face Tajikistan in the opening match of group B of the AFC U19 Championship 2018 qualifiers.

Mahabub Hossain Roksy, Head Coach of the team, said, “We ought to be extra cautious for the first match, which we are. We are going to give our 100% in the field while playing against hosts Tajikistan.”

Captain Tutul Hossain Badsha said, “In this tournament, our main target is to use the experience we gained in Bhutan SAFF U18 Championship and do well. The team combination is very good so far which will be very useful against the strong opponents.”

Ahead of the match, strength, conditioning head and goalkeeper coach John Whittle said, “We completed two training and recovery sessions without any injury concerns and with all players in good spirits.”

“We take on the hosts (Tajikistan) in out first game on Tuesday and of course we are hoping to kick-off the tournament with a positive result, which I’m quite confident that we can achieve. But we will need to be at our best,” he added.

Giving his take on the match, team manager Amirul Islam said, “Everybody is in good spirit. We are looking forward to beating Tajikistan. We are capable of that. Just keep us in your prayers.”

The match between Bangladesh and hosts Tajikistan will kick off at 6:00pm Bangladesh time on Tuesday.