Bangladesh National Football team will face Asian champions and four-time World Cupper Australia in their away match of the FIFA World Cup Qualifiers at the NIB Stadium in the Australian city of Perth today (Thursday), reports UNB.
The match, first between the two teams, will start at 7:00 pm local time (5:00 pm Bangladesh time). Australian Fox TV will telecast the match live. Nearly, 19,000 tickets for the Thursday match at NIB Stadium in Perth have already been sold out.
Addressing a pre-match press conference at Hotel Hyatt Regency in Perth Wednesday afternoon, the Dutch head coach of Bangladesh Lodewijk de Kruif said facing high ranked Australia is a tough task in front of his team, but they would not leave any stone unturned to face the challenge.
"It will be a good experience for our (Bangladesh) team to play against Asian number one team Australia. A good number of their players are now playing in Europe, so we are underdog in compared with the FIFA ranking and in all other side. But my players are not afraid… they are motivated to give their best to stop Australia by their tactics and skills," he added.
"Our boys are young… they have respect for Australia, but they are not coming here as a tourist. They are very much excited to play the match in Perth against Australia and eager to achieve a good result and many more experiences for the future matches," the Bangladesh coach further said.
Bangladesh Captain Mamunul Islam Mamun said, "It'll be good experience for our young players. We'll give our best to achieve a good result. We're morally boosted up after making a goalless draw against Malaysian national team in FIFA International Friendly in Kuala Lumpur before coming to Perth."
"This will be the highest quality match for me against Australia Team in FIFA World Cup Qualifiers. We'll fight against Australia until the final whistle with our skill, speed and everything. We know Australia are a very strong side, but we are ready to fight with them by giving full effort," he added.
On the other hand, hosts Australian coach Ange Postecoglou wants the Socceroos (Australian) to take their game to another level while taking on the FIFA 170th-ranked nation at NIB Stadium and also wants to see further progress from his emerging side, not only winning football, but free-flowing, vibrant, attacking football."
Australian Team captain said, "It'll be an exciting match because this is for the first time that both the teams are facing each other. We take the match seriously like other matches. We like to go step by step to qualify for the next FIFA World Cup 2018."
Bangladesh team had their official practice session at the match venue - NIB Stadium ground in Pier Street, Perth, Wednesday.
Earlier, Bangladesh were grouped with top ranked Australia, Jordan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan to play home and away basis qualifying round matches.
After return from Australia on September 4, Bangladesh National football team will play their home match against another giant Jordan on September 8 in Dhaka.
Bangladesh team: Mamunul Islam Mamun (Captain), Shahidul Alam, Rasel Mahmud, Ashraful Islam Rana, Rayhan Hasan, Nasirul Islam Nasir, Tapu Barman, Yeasin Khan, Yeamin Ahmed Chowdhury Munna, Atiqur Rahman Meshu Mohammad Linkon, Sohel Rana, Hemonta Vinsent Biswas, Jamal Bhuyan, Monaem Khan Raju, Emon Mahmud, Abdul Baten Majumder Komal, Taklis Ahmed, Aminur Rahman Sajib, Zahid Hossain, Jahid Hasan Ameli, Jewel Rana and Enamul Haque.
