Bangladesh will take on hosts Nepal in the opening match of the 8th Saff Championship at the Dashrath Stadium at 6:45pm today.
Recent history favours Bangladesh, who took the Saff title in 2003, over Nepal. In the last two encounters between the sides, Bangladesh came out 2-0 winners in the AFC Challenge Cup qualifiers last March, while a friendly match was drawn 1-1, but the stakes are much higher now.
Nepal, who reached the semi-finals in the last Saff, has never won the title and are particular keen to do so at home this time round. In a bid to further motivate its team, the All Nepal Football Association has offered each player an apartment and a 10,000 rupees lifetime pension.
Bangladesh are apparently no less determined to succeed and captain Mamunul Islam said, “We are not looking incentives. We are here to play football for our country. We know if we win the title, there will be awards, but we are just focusing on winning the title with our best efforts,” he said.
Bangladesh has won seven of the last 13 matches against Nepal, while losing four and drawing the other two, but Nepal’s desire to come out ahead has never been higher. Last March when Nepal lost 2-0, the match had to be stopped for a few minutes as a Nokia 3200 set was thrown from the stand at a Bangladeshi player.
Bangladesh’s coach, Dutchman Lodewijk de Kruif, was aware of the incident and said, “The players would have to go through a stern test in front of the hostile crowd. They have to be in the best possible conditions, physically and mentally when they play Nepal in the Dashrath Stadium. They have to be in their best.”
He went on to remain both positive and realistic at the same time in his assessment of his team’s prospects. “In our group Bangladesh are outsiders. The group has defending champions India and hosts Nepal but that doesn’t mean Bangladesh don’t have the fire to win the title.
We have gone through a tough and hard preparation process and the players are good - they are raring to go,” said de Kruif. He went on, “Bangladesh finished 7th in the last edition of Saff Championship and there are higher ranked teams than Bangladesh. It is not ideal to dub Bangladesh as the favourites after just two years.”
Bangladesh’s captain, Mamunul Islam may not play in the match as the medical staff for the team was set to make a decision on the matter as late as possible ahead of the game. Nepal meanwhile remained free of injury troubles, and coach Jack Stefanowski said the match would be the most important one of for his team in the entire tournament.
Nepalese captain Sagar Thapa was quick to warn his opponents of a tough match – despite recent head-to-head records. “Revenge is not in our mind but we will focus not to repeat the mistakes we made in the match. The first match is very important for us and we want to win it to take a big step towards the semis,” he said.
