Hosts Tajik test on Tuesday
Dhaka, June 15: Bangladesh will have to be its best to counter a spirited Tajikistan in the Fifa World Cup Qualifier of group B at the Bangabanndhu National Stadium at 5:00 pm on Tuesday.
Like Bangladesh, Tajikistan also began their campaign with a 3-1 defeat at home to Jordan last Thursday. Bangladesh lost to Kyrgyzstan on the same day at Dhaka.
The Fifa ranking also gives Tajikistan the edge as they are ranked 139th, 27 places above Bangladesh.
Bangladesh met Tajikistan for the first time in 2003 in the preliminary qualifiers of the 2006 Fifa World Cup. and lost 4-0. In 2007 .in the AFC Challenge Cup Tajikistan won convincingly 6-1 win. In the 2010 Fifa World Cup pre-qualifiers Tajikistan landed a 6-1 aggregate victory, winning 5-0 at home. Bangladesh in 2010 edged past Tajikstan 2-1 in the AFC Challenge Cup in Colombo.
Bangladesh coach Lodewijk de Kruif however was not ready to leave the any ground without a fight. “They are technically and tactically better, we have to put our best, we have nothing to lose apart from fighting, we will be taking the field as a hard opponent” said the Dutch.
Mukhsin Mukhmadiev, the Tajik coach also affirmed his thirst of victory. “We lost the first game, we want to bounce back to the winning ways, Bangladesh is a good team and they have some good players, we want play our best and win the match” said the Tajik coach.