A confident Bangladesh Under-23 football team will take on the Nepal U-23 side in the second and final match of the SS Steel International Friendly Series at the Sylhet Zilla Stadium at 5pm today.
A 1-0 win in Dhaka on Tuesday brought confidence with in the home team who are looking to make Sylhet’s debut as an international venue a memorable one. BTV World will telecast the match live.
However, the playing pitch still remains the major talking point of the clash. The teams got involved in some sort of a nasty brawl in the opening match at the Army Stadium with rain pouring down, leaving the field muddy and sluggish.
Continuous rain in the last 10 days indicated a worst pitch in Sylhet and with a little sunshine yesterday the ground staffs were seen trying their best to ready a minimum standard ground.
“We are trying to upgrade the pitch. If there is no more rain and if we get sun as well, i hope the pitch will be alright by tomorrow (Friday) noon,” said match commissioner Monirul Islam to Dhaka Tribune yesterday.
Practice schedules were cancelled from the Zilla stadium due to the circumstances and instead were shifted to the Sylhet Cricket Stadium. Nepal enjoyed a very short training session in the morning which lasted for an hour while Bangladesh trained for couple hours from 4pm with the player sreflecting a very positive body language ahead of the clash.
Bangladesh’s Dutch coach Lodewijk de Kruif is, however, concentrating on to improve the strength of the players. “The boys played very well in the previous match, especially in the first 70-75 minutes. Now our target is how to make it 90 minutes and we are working on it. The boys gave me words to play 90 minutes in same rhythm and beat Nepal,” said Kruif after their training session.
Skipper Mamunul Islam also promised to give 100 percent on the pitch and said, “Some complained that we lack commitment and don’t give 100 percent on the pitch but we proved them wrong in Army Stadium and hope to continue it tomorrow (today).”
Meanwhile, Nepal’s Polish coach Jack Stefanowski looked to build on the positives from their losing encounter. “In the first match, we didn’t play well in the first half where we couldn’t defend well and Bangladesh dominated. We played better in the second half and created more chances and we want to carry the momentum of the second half tomorrow in the 90 minutes.”
“We need to believe in our passing game and get our possession game going. We need to do a better job defensively as well,” he said.
Nepal captain Sagar Thapa carries the experience of playing Bangladesh previously and the oldest member of the squad admitted that the Bangladesh team are a lot more developed side now.
“This team is very different than the side we played against in Saff Championship. When we played against them last time, we comfortably won the game. Now they are fast, they play good football, keep the possession and they have a solid defence too.”
“Tomorrow’s (today’s) match is important for us. We already lost the first game and we need to win,” he added.
Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith will be present during the the game as chief guest.