United News of Bangladesh

Bangladesh national football team, now in Kyrgyzstan, will kick off their campaign in the Three Nations Cup 2021 by taking on Palestine in Bishkek on Sunday.  The match kicks-off at 8:30 pm Bangladesh Standard Time at the Dolen Omurzakov Stadium in the Kyrgyz capital.  Going by the latest FIFA rankings, 186th-ranked Bangladesh will have a tough time competing with 96th-ranked Kyrgyzstan and 102nd-ranked Palestine. English Head Coach Jamie Day's Bangladesh will play their 2nd match on September 7 (Tuesday) against hosts Kyrgyzstan, who are in a good position having beaten Palestine 1-0 in the tournament's opening match on Thursday. Besides, Bangladesh team will also play a friendly match against hosts Kyrgyzstan U-23 side on September 9 as part of their preparation for the SAFF Championship to be held in Maldives next month (October). Read: Expatriate booters Rahbar, Tahmid join practice session in Kyrgyzstan Prior to Sunday's match, Bangladesh team had an one-hour official training session at the match  venue from 10 am to 11 am on Saturday. This time Bangladesh included two fresh expatriate booters in the squad-- forward Rahbar Wahed Khan from Canada and medio Nayb Md Tahmidul Islam from France in addition to Denmark-born national captain Jamal Bhuiyan and Finland-born Tariq Kazi. Ahead of Sunday's match, Bangladesh captain Jamal Bhuiyan said "Tomorrow is our first match against Palestine, we watched the Kyrgyzstan-Palestine match and discussed about our strategy with the coach. We are fully fit and ready to face Palestine."  "We have to improve our performance, we practiced how to play the match, we will try a new system tomorrow, if it will click then we will continue it," he added Meanwhile, President of Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) Kazi Mohammad Salahuddin, accompanied by FIFA council member, BFF and AFC member Mahfuza Akhter Kiron and BFF general secretary Abu Nayem Sohag,  are also now in Bishkek to encourage the booters.