Dhaka, July 22: Bangladesh was in high spirits ahead of the crucial World Cup qualifier against Lebanon scheduled to be played at Beirut on Saturday at 8:00 pm (BST).

In the pre match press conference  at the Bristol Hotel Beirut on Friday, assistant coach Syed Golam Jilani, and skipper Biplob Bhattacharjee, represented Bangladesh  while the Lebanese comprised Emile Rustom, the head Coach and Abbas Atwi, the captain.

Jilani was upbeat about the first match between Lebanon and Bangladesh. “Tomorrow our boys will play their natural game and hope they will display the fighting spirit. We don’t forget that Lebanon is a good team” said Jilani.

 Biplob also echoed the same voice and focused upon the team effort. “Our team has a   mix of youth and experience, football is a very popular game in our country, the whole nation will be following this match. Hope we can make our country people happy tomorrow” said the Bangladesh skipper.

Lebanese coach Emile Rustom said, however, warned Bangladesh for a tough time ahead.  “We take this match very seriously; we played 3 practice matches which helped us to see all the players of the team. Maybe last two years our national team didn’t play any match. But we are not going to give up anything, so we have to win the home match for the upraising of national team and also before going to Dhaka, we want a moral boost up” said Rustom.

Abbas Atwi, the Lebanese skipper expressed his strong determination.”Our team is fully fit and ready for the challenge. We did not do well in the practice matches but we were going through a trial process and moreover the atmosphere was of a friendly match” said Atwi.

Two players of the Lebanon team played overseas. They are Yousuf Mohammed in Germany and Antar Roda in China..