Bangladesh face Maldives in crucial SAFF match Sunday

Bangladesh take on the Maldives in their crucial second group B match of the Bangabandhu SAFF Championship on Sunday at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium in Bengaluru, India.

Private satellite channel T-Sports telecast the match live that kicks off at 4 pm (BST).

Bangladesh must need point against the Maldives to stay in the tournament race following their 0-2 goal defeat to superior Lebanon in their group B opening match held on Thursday last.

The red and green jersey holders showed a bit of improvement and created the hope of holding their superior Lebanon in that match, but defensive errors from Tariq Kazi and debutant Isa Faisal caused the downfall of the team.

Bangladesh fought neck to neck with Lebanon till 79 minutes of the proceeding, but Hassan Maatouk broke their resistance to put Lebanon 1-0 up. In the sixth minute of added time, Khalil Bader scored another as Bangladesh‍‍`s hope of any single point from that match shattered.

On the other hand, the Maldives, ranked 154, made a winning start in the tournament beating Bhutan 2-0 in their first group encounter. Hamza Mohamed opened the scoring for the Maldives from the spot kick early in the sixth minute before Naiz Hassan put the final nail in the Dragon Boys‍‍` coffin in the 90th minute.

However, in the sixth minute of stoppage time, Hassan Raif Ahmed was sent off for the Maldives, and he‍‍`s now suspended from the clash against Bangladesh.

Prior to the Maldives match Bangladesh‍‍`s head coach Javier Cabrera said: "we‍‍`re disappointed after not getting any point from Lebanon match, but this time we need to win and we want to win .... the team is ready and atmosphere is good.. tomorrow‍‍`s (Sunday) will be a very tough fight and I believe we‍‍`ll achieve our objective." 

The head coach said his team is quite positive after the Lebanon match. Both teams have fifty-fifty chance and the team which would be united and fight harder will win the match.

The Spanish coach admitted that the Sunday‍‍`s match against the Maldives is going to be a crucial match for his team and they would not go the field for one point rather they are looking forward for full three points.

Defender Topu Barman also found confident before the crucial match against the Maldives.

"I think we stared good in the last match against Lebanon ... the effort which he had in the last match was not only save any goal but there was also attempt from our end to score goal .... I think there was a mistake happed which is natural in the game. We had group meeting twice after the Lebanon match and all are discussed not to repeat those mistakes and how to handle the Maldives. We‍‍`re confident and want to do our job in the field tomorrow (Sunday)."

Topu said it‍‍`s not all over yet for them after losing the match against Lebanon rather they are now only focusing on the Maldives match and want to start a fresh from there.