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Bangladeshi football team arrives in Karachi

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KARACHI, December 25 (Online): Bangladesh football team make their second trip to Pakistan this month when they arrived at Karachi Saturday to play the second leg of the 14th Asian Cup qualifiers.

The Bangladesh-Pakistan second leg will be held at the People’s Sports Complex at Karachi on 26 December, Monday at 5 PM.

It would be a tough task for the SAFF Championship runners-up to reach the next round, especially after drawing 0-0 with Pakistan at Dhaka on Thursday. But Bangladesh’s Argentine coach Diego Cruciani and captain Arif Khan Joy were hopeful that they would be able to lift the team spirit and return home with a positive outcome.

Bangladesh beat Pakistan by a solitary goal in the SAFF Championship semifinal, but since the 0-2 loss to India in the final of that 8-team soccer fiesta, Cruciani’s boys seemed yet to recover from the hangover. Striker Shahjuddin Tipu and defender Faisal Ahmed are being dropped from SAFF squad as the Bangladesh team landed at Pakistan with 18 players and three officials.

Manager Sayeed Hassan Kanan said that the match is very important for the Bangladeshi team. "It would help our national team if we can qualify. After the 2003 SAFF Championship, we did not have a coach for two and a half years and hardly played an international match. But now we have a foreign coach for one and half months. If we reach the qualifying stage, we can continue the national camp," Kanan told.

"We need more time and training to prepare the national team which can’t avail most of the times due to lack of fund. But the chance to play more international matches would not only give the players more exposure but also keep the players busy," the former national goalkeeper added.

Aminul Haque, Biplab Bhattachariya, Mohammad Sujan, Rajani Kanta Barman, Parvez Babu, Firoz Mahmud Titu, Nazrul Islam, Hassan Al Mamun, Arif Khan Joy (captain), Arman Aziz, Arman Mia, Matiur Munna, Abul Hossain, Alfaz Ahmed, Mehdi Hasan Ujjal, Ariful Kabir Farhad, Rokonuzzaman Kanchan and Zahid Hossain Emily.

Officials: Diego Cruciani (coach), Sayeed Hasan Kanan (manager) and Ariel Colman (trainer).

End.