Bangladesh national football team will face upper-ranked Singapore national football team in an International FIFA friendly match at the Bangabandhu National Stadium at 4:00 pm today (Saturday) as part of their preparation for the next month's World Cup Qualifiers, reports UNB.
Bangladesh will play another FIFA friendly against Afghanistan on June 2 at the same venue. Both sides will play the friendly as part of their preparation ahead of the FIFA World Cup 2018 Qualifiers as well as AFC Asia Cup 2019 Qualifiers.
"These matches are very important for us as we are focusing on the style that we want to adopt against Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan," Bangladesh national football team coach Saiful Bari Titu said at the pre-match press conference at BFF House Friday. "We want to build the team for the ultimate challenges and the players are fit and ready for the challenge," Titu continued.
Titu spoke at the press conference in the place of head coach Lodewijk de Kruif who was absent due to his kidney related ailment.
Bangladesh National team captain Mamunul Islam Mamun said, "We will be able to develop our fitness level through these two matches as well as our ranking will be up on the list if we beat them."
On the other hand, in his first appearance before the press, German born Singapore head coach Bernd Stange promised an attacking brand of football saying, "We are full prepared to face Bangladesh national side; we are here with a good team."
"I may term Bangladesh as the Dark Horse as we know very little about them, but we respect our opponents and we will be firing all cylinders to present an entertaining and attacking brand of football," the coach added. "We will play attacking football, my boys know each other and we are well prepared, let's see who are better," he continued.
The coach informed there are 11 players in the 21-man team who recently won the FA Cup in Malaysia playing for Lions XII, and noted that the conditions are not a headache for us. "We had two training sessions at home before leaving for Dhaka," Stange said adding that no player of the Singapore U-23 National team, who played against Bangladesh in the Bangabandhu Gold Cup few months ago, is in the present squad. He also noted that they won't underestimate Bangladesh as both the teams are close on the ranking list (FIFA ranking Singapore 162, Bangladesh 169).
Captain of the visiting side Mohammad Shahril Bin Ishak (FW), the 31-year-old who played 121 international football matches in his 12-year playing career, strongly echoed head coach saying, "The match will be the testing match for us before the World Cup Qualifier….we want to entertain the crowd."
Singapore Lions XII dominated 21-player visitors team involving three new faces in national side Yasir Hanapi (Home United midfielder), Zaiful Nizam (Balestier Khalsa keeper) and Izzdin Shafiq (Lions XII midfielder), have already reached Dhaka Thursday night.
Bangladesh played with Singapore only once till date. The match held in Merdeka Cup in 1973 ended 1-1.
B’desh play FIFA friendly against Singapore today
FE Team | Published: May 30, 2015 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00
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