Both Bangladesh and the Philippines will apparently look to conserve their strength for the semifinals when the sides face off in the final Group B fixture of the Bangabandhu Gold Cup at the Sylhet District Stadium today.
The match will get underway at 6:30pm with Maasranga TV and Nagorik TV telecasting the game live from the venue.
Bangladesh progressed into the semifinals with a match remaining by handing Laos a 1-0 loss in the tournament opener before Philippines sent the Southeast Asian Nation packing with a 3-1 defeat. This is the third time in a row that Bangladesh have qualified for the semifinal stage.
Therefore, the match at hand is of less importance to both teams with their semifinal battle in Cox's Bazar in sight. And although both sides might deem it prudent to rest some of their key players, neither have forgotten their target of finishing on the top of the group with an outright victory, indicating that today's encounter should be an entertaining one.
There may be a big gap between the two in terms of FIFA Rankings -- Philippines are 114th while Bangladesh are 193rd -- but they seem equal in quality as Bangladesh beat Philippines 3-2 in the 1984 Asian Nations Cup while the latter came out 3-0 winners in an invitational tournament encounter in Myanmar in 2011.
Since then, the sides have not met at any competition but Philippines were busy climbing up the FIFA ladder while Bangladesh were climbing down. To make things bleaker, Philippines qualified for the 2019 Asian Cup while Bangladesh were eliminated from the 2019 Asian Games Qualifiers play-off.
And although Philippines brought their second-string team, they seem stronger than the hosts, especially with the way they beat Laos even though five of their players joined the team on the match day.
“Philippines are a good side. They have very good players that showed yesterday [Wednesday]. They have a good game going forward, so it going to be a tough game for us. We will go there for victory but I think we need a little a bit of luck tomorrow [Friday],” said Bangladesh's English coach Jamie Day after practice at the Sylhet BKSP ground yesterday.
Qualifying for the semifinals may have been Bangladesh's pre-tournament target, but Jamie is now thinking about the final.
“We are confident and everyone is happy with we achieved to be in the semifinals, that was the target. So now for us is to go to this game and play well and take that performance hopefully into the semifinals where we obviously want to win and go through,” said the 38-year-old coach while hinting that players ranging from the backline to the forward lineup could be rested.
Sushanta Tripura, Rahmat Mia, Mamunul Islam, Emon Babu and Towhidul Alam Sabuz are likely to be in the first eleven alongside goalkeeper Ashraful Islam Rana, Tutul Hossain Badsha, Tapu Barman, Rabiul Hasan, Biplu Ahmed and Nabib Newaj Jibon.
“We will strike a balanced and performing side as we are looking to win the match. At the same time, we will rest some players to prepare for semis but we will definitely go for win against Bangladesh,” said Philippines interim coach Andres Crisanto Gonzales, adding that everyone in his team have had international exposure.
https://www.thedailystar.net/sports/football/news/rest-day-hosts-1642810
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