With virtually no knowledge about the opponents, Sri Lanka will begin their Bangabandhu Gold Cup International Football campaign at Sylhet District Stadium today against a confident Malaysia Under-23 side. The match will kick off at 5pm.
On the eve of their opening match today, Sri Lanka’s Serbian head coach Nikola Kavazovic admitted that they are yet to analyse their opposition.
“This is the first time in my career we didn’t analyse our opponents because I came here without any competitive aim. We can’t compete against Malaysia and Bangladesh at this moment,” said a resigned Kavazovic yesterday.
The Serbian informed that the third edition of the Bangabandhu Gold Cup will serve as preparation for the upcoming 2018 Fifa World Cup pre-qualifiers.
“Our only aim here is to play two games and have two different experiences. Firstly, we want to compete with one national team coming from a developing country. And, the other experience is to play against the hosts in front of 50,000 people in Dhaka in a competitive match. So, mainly we came here to play two games as part of our preparation for the first stage of WC qualifiers,” he said.
Kavazovic added that it would be a miracle if they beat Malaysia today. “I don’t expect that we will win. We are on the course of 30 percent of possibility. So, if we beat them tomorrow (today) it would be some miracle. Even if we beat Bangladesh it would not be natural.”
The Group A encounter between the two teams is also important for hosts Bangladesh, who suffered a 1-0 defeat against the Malaysians at the same venue last Thursday. If the home side are to have any hopes of making it through to the semifinals, then Malaysia must beat Sri Lanka 2-0 or more today. Then, Bangladesh must draw or win their final group stage match against the Lankans this Monday in Dhaka.
Malaysia head coach Mohamed Razip Ismail on the other hand expressed his determination to continue their winning streak and progress to the last four as group champions. Ismail though echoed Kavazovic’s tune saying the Malaysians were also in the dark over their opposition.
“I have no idea about Sri Lanka team and I never watched them play,” said Ismail before adding, “I think every match is very important. We already beat the host country. But tomorrow’s (today’s) match is more important for us to qualify for the semifinals. I will take this match against Sri Lanka very seriously.
“We want to continue our winning performance. If we beat Sri Lanka tomorrow (today) we will come up as top of the group. The most important thing is to maintain the winning performance.”
