Touring Bangladesh will play war-torn Arabian nation Lebanon in their last Group I away match of the FIFA World Cup qualifiers on Tuesday at the Khalifa International Stadium in Al Rayyan in Doha, Qatar which will kick-off at 7: pm local time and 10: pm Bangladesh time. Earlier, Bangladesh National Football team reached Qatar capital Doha Friday midnight.
The Bangladesh football team underwent practice in Qatar ahead of Lebanon clash amid scorching heat in Qatar, where they are set to take on Lebanon in their final match in the FIFA World Cup qualifiers.
The charges of Javier Cabrera arrived in Al Rayyan on Saturday, fresh off their spirited performance against Australia, where they suffered a 2-0 defeat at the Bashundhara Kings Arena on Thursday.
The first leg match between hosts Bangladesh and touring Lebanon ended in a 1-1 draw in Dhaka.
"The visiting team usually struggles to adapt to the weather so soon after arrival. The temperature in Qatar is about 45 to 48 degrees in the day, but it comes down to 36 degrees after the sun goes down.
"Adaptation is a challenge for the boys, but we are hopeful that the boys will adapt to the weather before the match against Lebanon," said assistant coach Hasan Al Mamun in an audio message sent by Bangladesh Football Federation.
Bishwanath Ghosh, who missed the tie against Australia due to suspension, is also optimistic about both adaptation and the outcome of the match.
"Very recently we had the similar weather in Bangladesh. I don't see much difference between the weather in Bangladesh and Qatar. We also don't want to focus on this issue, rather we have to start the work in a bid to realise our objective in Qatar," Bishwanath said.
"Our preparation is good because we came here after playing a big match against Australia. We might have lost the match but we are hopeful with the positive things we did in the Australia match. If we can repeat the performance against Australia, we can return home with something good from Qatar."
Bangladesh are currently at the bottom of Group I with just one point in five matches, which came from a draw against Lebanon in the first leg at the Bashundhara Kings arena last year.
The booters are targeting to secure at least one point in the second leg against Lebanon to end their campaign on a positive note. "We want a win. Lebanon will also be wanting to win but our objective is to secure either full three points or at least one point in our last match of the World Cup Qualifiers," said Mamun.
Earlier, The football crazy fans of Bangladesh gave a warm reception to the Bangladesh Football team in the airport soon after the team reached Doha Friday midnight.
After reaching the team hotel in Doha Saturday early hour , Bangladesh team made their recovery session at the Team Hotel gymnasium Saturday morning.
Bangladesh made their first practice session at the Qatar University TS4 East Training ground Saturday evening.
In their home match in Dhaka last Thursday, hosts Bangladesh displayed a respectable performance against six time World Cup playing Australia and conceded a narrow 0-2 goals defeat after showing a fighting football till the last whistle.
The war-torn Palestine are in the distant 2nd collecting eight points from five matches with two wins, two draws and one defeat.
Lebanon is in the 3rd slot securing three points from five matches three draws and two defeats while Bangladesh remained at the bottom with one point from five matches after making 1-1 draw with Lebanon in their home match in Dhaka.
Earlier, Bangladesh suffered 0-7 goals defeat against World Cup playing Australia in their away match, drew 1-1 with Arabian nation Lebanon in the home match, suffered 0-5 defeat against Palestine in their away match in Kuwait and conceded a shocking 0-1 goal defeat in the dying moments against Palestine in their home match in Dhaka.
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