Hosts targeting knock-out stage

Desk Report: Bangladesh coach Jamie Day said on Monday that qualifying from the group stage would be their primary target in the 12th SAFF Championship that begins in Dhaka today.
Hosts Bangladesh will begin their campaign when they take on Bhutan in their first Group A match at the Bangabandhu National Stadium.
The other two teams of the group are Pakistan and Nepal.
The match will kick-off at 7:00pm with Bangladesh Television and Channel 9 live telecasting the match.
With this match, Bangladesh are going to play their first competitive match in a tournament since their famous 1-3 loss against the same opponent in the Asian Games Qualifiers play-off in October 10, 2016.
Despite that loss, the hosts will go into today’s match as favourites as they never lost to Bhutan in SAFF competition.
Earlier, both the teams met each other in 11 occasions where Bangladesh won eight times, lost once and the other two games ended in draws. Bangladesh lifted South Asia’s most prestigious football tournament only once and that was way back in 2003 at home.
Bangladesh also failed to qualify for the semi-finals of the Championship in the last three editions of the tournament.
‘Obviously the success of Asian Games has increased the expectations of Bangladeshi people, but my aim is to come out from the group stage,’ said the Englishman during a pre-tournament press conference on Monday.
‘I’m not going say that we are going to win it, we have got the best team, that’s not for me to say. We have got three tough games, we will be up against three good teams in the group stage and they also think to get through from the group.
‘So for us, we need to perform in all three games to get enough points to get out the group. If we do that then we will think about the knock-out match,’ he added.
Day claimed that his players had prepared well and were eager to give their best in the tournament.
‘We trained in Qatar and South Korea and also had a few practice matches there, where we performed well while the FIFA friendly against Sri Lanka helped us to ready some of the players for tomorrow’s game [against Bhutan],’ he said.
‘We have been playing for the last four months and we expect to do our best tomorrow [today].’
Bangladesh Under-23 national team advanced into the second round in the just concluded Asian Games in Jakarta for the first time in history.
‘Obviously there will be some pressure to play in front of the home crowd but I would be happy if they react the same what they did in the Asian Games.’
On the other hand, Bhutan’s English coach Trevor Morgan, who took the charge of the team in March, came here with a young team.
Though Morgan put Bangladesh ahead for today’s match he confirmed that his charges would try to prove their worth against the hosts.
‘I think first of all Bangladesh probably are the favourites in this group because Jamie [Day] has done well and took the Olympic team in the knock-out stage of the Asian Games,’ said Morgan.
‘There are some good players in Bhutan team. This is a wonderful opportunity for them to prove their worth.’