Bangladesh U23 national team head coach Jamie Day has termed his team’s first match against hosts Bahrain as a “tough challenge” but one that both he and his players are looking forward to.
“We are looking forward to the game. We need to make sure that everything is organized and everyone does their job correctly,” said Jamie Day while talking about his first match against Bahrain.
Underlining that Bahrain is going to be a tough game, Jamie said, “They are a good side and obviously the host nation. So, they will be favourites to win the game. They can go through the group.”
“We need to play well and work hard and whenever we get our chance, we need to take them. We have a good bunch of young players. Some have played for the national team. I hope that they perform to the levels that we need them to over the next three games,” he added.
To conclude, the Briton said, “We know that we have to play at our best to get through this group or give ourselves a chance of doing that. Yes, we are looking forward to it. But it’s going to be a tough challenge.”
Briton Jamie and his support staff is happy with the overall preparation of the team.
Even though Palestine (100) and hosts Bahrain (111) rank relatively higher than Bangladesh (192) in the international FIFA rankings (Sri Lanka rank 201), the team believes that nothing is impossible and all the players and staff are determined to try their best to turn this competition into a success.
On the other hand, Bahrain head coach Sameer Chammam said that they are determined to win the first game to live up to the expectation surrounding them.
“They people have a lot of expectation; especially for this under-23 group as the team has been together for nearly four years. I have been coaching the team for two years but the group is together for four years. That why we are hopeful of achieving something big in this competition.”
Asked about his opinion about Bahrain’s group rivals, Sameer said, “Well I frankly do not know that much about Bangladesh and Sri Lanka as we never played against them. I only have some idea about Palestine as we played against them and Jakarta in the Asian Games.”
“About our first opponents Bangladesh…. well, I think they will be very fast on the field but other than that I do not know what their tactics will be. But hopefully we will be able to get some idea about Palestine and Sri Lanka as they will be playing the first game,” he concluded.
In the pre-match press-conference, Palestine coach Ayman Sanduque and Sri Lanka coach Pakir Ali also expressed their determination of achieving their targets in the competition.
Bangladesh will play Bahrain on March 22 and then Palestine and Sri Lanka on March 24 and March 26 respectively.
The Bahrain-Bangladesh match will kick-off at the Khalifa Sports City Stadium in Isa Town at 10:00pm Bangladesh time on Friday.
Fans can download the Bahrain TV app from the Apple App Store or Google Play store and watch the match live from the Bahrain Sports 1 channel.
