ZCZC
BSP-20
FOOTBALL-PRACTICE-MATCH
National footballteam play 2-2 draw with Sheikh Jamal in practice match
DHAKA, May 27, 2021 (BSS)- The Bangladesh national football team, came from behind and played out to a 2-2 goal draw with Lieutenant Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club in the close-door practice match as part of preparation of their FIFA World Cup 2022 Qualifiers and AFC Asian Cup China 2023 (preliminary joint round) matches in Qatar.
Held at Bangabandhu National Stadium, Yeasin Arafat and Mehedi Hasan scored one goal each for national team in the 65th and 68th minutes respectively after Gambian forward Sulayman Sillah opened an account for Sheikh Jamal scoring the first goal of the match in the 41st minute while the second one came as suicidal goal in the 59th minute of the match.
After the match, national defender Topu Barman said: “Such kind of practice match was needed for the team … it was a competitive match as Sheikh Jamal tried their best to win the match but we played good football. I think it was a motivational match because we’ll have to play big matches of World Cup Qualifiers .. I think we have been able to achieve something positive from the practice match.”
He said playing a practice match is like one kind of preparation and through this match the coach would be able to find out the mistakes.
Replying to a question Topu said they know their rivals of the qualifiers very well and their aim would be to acquire points from the three matches of the qualifiers.
Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club coach Shafiqul Islam Manik sees lack of confidence level among the national booters in the practice match.
He said: “Though it was an entertaining match but I think their (national footballers) confidence level was supposed to be good against the familiar faces which was absent in the match.”
He said the national football team, despite trailing by two goals, however staged a brilliant come back in the match scoring two goals in the second half and during this time the effort that was needed to be given to the team was noticed among the national booters.
The national booters will leave for Qatar tomorrow to take part in their remaining three matches of the FIFA World Cup Qualifiers.
According to a fixture of the FIFA World Cup 2022 qualifiers, Bangladesh will play against Afghanistan, India and Oman on June 3, 7 and 15 respectively.
BSS/SG/ARS/2117 hrs