BD play Pakistan in four nation meet in SL today

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Bangladesh Under-23 Football Team, now in Sri Lanka to participate in the four-nation Mahinda Rajapaksa International Football Tournament, will face Pakistan in their first match today (Monday) at 4:00 pm at newly constructed Jayathilake Stadium, Nawalapitiya in Kandy, reports UNB.
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa will inaugurate the four-nation international football tournament named after him with Sri Lanka-Maldives opening match that will kick-off at 2:00 pm. Before the inaugural match, the Lankan President will also inaugurate the newly constructed Jayathilake Stadium in Nawalapitiya, a town in the central province of Kandy, which is some 135 kilomtres away from Colombo.
In the remaining matches, Bangladesh will play Sri Lanka Wednesday (Dec 5) at 4:00 pm and will meet the Maldives Friday (Nov 7) at 2:00 pm.
Bangladesh team, which made their inaugural practice session at the tournament venue of Jayathilaka Stadium Saturday, made their practice at Qomapala Field Sunday afternoon to prepare for their target of winning the trophy.
On the eve of the meet, Bangladesh Coach Saiful Bari Titu said: "Today (Monday) is a very important day for this tournament because all the four participating teams will play on the day. We'll have an opportunity to see the strength and weakness of the teams."
"Bangladesh will play in the day's second match, but we'll definitely watch the first match. I think every match of this tournament will be competitive one," he said, according to message received by Bangladesh Football Federation.
Coach Titu said definitely, Sri Lanka will have the home ground advantage while the Maldives have some players from their senior squad that will give them extra advantage. "Pakistan always gives their best against us. That's why I think this tournament will be a tough one."
About the Bangladesh team, he said: "Our team is a youthful one, but we also have some players from our national team. Basically, I will depend more on them, they have the experience of playing against Thailand and Malaysia."
The Serbian coach of Pakistan team, Zavisa Milosavljevic said, "We just arrived. We have 7 to 8 players from our senior national team." "We played two practice matches with Singapore U-23 team and Singapore National Team. We lost both the matches by 1-0 and 4-0 but that gave us experience of tough matches," he said.
"Basically, this is the U-22 team of Pakistan which played in Saudi Arabia," coach Zavisa said.
The Maldives team was groomed by Hungarian coach Estvan Urbyani. The Maldives team has three players from their national squad and two of them will play in the main eleven. Three players of the Maldives team took training from Japan Football Association.
Maldives youth team played practice matches with their national team before coming to Sri Lanka and they prepared with a two-week training.
The host Sri Lankan team was coached by Sampat Perera.