The conditioning camp of the national football team will be held in Saudi Arabia in preparation for the two World Cup qualifiers against Palestine in March. If everything goes well, coach Javier Cabrera will go to Saudi with the team on March 2.
The Bangladesh team will go to Kuwait after practicing in Saudi until March 17. There, the away match against Palestine will be on March 21, the return match on March 26 in Dhaka.
Cabrera plans to play two warm-up matches for the national team during training in Saudi. The coach said this today (Tuesday) while explaining the camp in Saudi and his various plans to the journalists on the field in front of the Bafuf building.
He said, some new players have also caught his eye. The Spanish coach also talked about the possibility of some U-20 and U-23 players being called up for the preliminary camp.
“I am happy with the performance of several young players in Bangladesh Premier League and Federation Cup matches. A few U-20 and U-23 players may be on my list’ said Javier Cabrera.
When asked whether there is a plan to play any preparatory matches during the practice in Saudi, the coach said, ‘Some other teams will also train there (in Saudi). I have my eye on that. If a team agrees, we will try to play at least two matches. We will try to play matches against any national team. If that is not possible then I will play a match against the local club.’
Bangladesh’s three rivals Australia, Palestine and Lebanon played in the Asian Cup in World Cup qualifiers. How was Palestine’s performance there and did you watch any matches? To such a question, the coach said, ‘Palestine has performed very well in this year’s Asian Cup. I would say they had a successful Asia Cup.’
‘In the group stage they drew against the United Arab Emirates and beat Hong Kong. Made it to the last sixteen for the first time and put up a great fight against defending champions Qatar. At one stage they even took the lead against Qatar. In the end, Kuwait won the match. We know the level of Palestine. We will try our best to do something good against them.’
About the injured Morsalin, the coach said, ‘I can’t say yet whether I can take him to Saudi. But it will be difficult to take him.’
Stating that the initial squad will not be too big, the coach said, ‘My initial list will be between 26 and 28 players. Next Friday and Saturday there are matches of the last round of the first phase of the Bangladesh Premier League. After seeing this round, I will finalize the initial team list.’
RI/MMR
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