Bangladesh take on Maldives with two changes

Bangladesh made two changes to the playing eleven against Maldives, bringing on Rakib Hossain and Mohammad Ridoy in place of Suman Reza and Mojibur Rahman Jony. 

Bangladesh team are planning to take control of the midfield against Maldives in a desperate bid to keep their semifinal hopes alive.

Maldives also brought two changes from their first match with forwards Ali Fasir and Naiz Hassan coming in for Ibrahim Mahudhee Hussain and Ibrahim Wahed Hassan.

The match will kick off at 4:0pm (BST) at Sree Kanteerava Stadium in Bengaluru. 

Bangladesh are in a do-or-die situation after losing their first match against Lebanon 2-0. They have an uphill task against a side they have not beaten in this competition for 20 years.

Coach Javier Cabrera deployed three midfielders against Lebanon in a 4-3-3 formation, and he is likely to appoint one more midfielder against Maldives to control the midfield. 

"We need to control the midfield if we want to do well against Maldives. And, we are likely to include one more midfielder compared to the Lebanon match and  expecting to take control of the midfield because we all are ball players," Mohammad Sohel Rana told reporters after yesterday's training session at Bengaluru Football Stadium.

When asked how the team is drawing inspiration against Maldives, Sohel said, "Since we went to Saudi Arabia for the national camp (in March), we have been preparing for the SAFF Championship and have been working on Maldives team. Today we also had training in line of that preparation. We have watched their matches and that's why we are getting confident to perform well against Maldives."

"During the training, everyone including coach also said that the match against Maldives is like the final and we are confident with our balanced squad," Rana added.

Central defender Tapu Barman believes they have to keep a clean sheet if they want to beat Maldives.

"We will leave the SAFF Championship once again if we don't get a win over Maldives. Now it is the duty of all the players to give their best," Tapu said. "We must try to keep a clean sheet by giving more than 100 percent."

"We have already studied the key players of Maldives team and learned what to do against them. But, only the defenders we want to defend all whole team because we know the importance of this game," said Tapu.

Forward Faisal Ahmed Fahim is also eager to finish well in today's match, especially after squandering an opportunity against Lebanon.

"I think it is possible to expose the Maldives defence like we did against Lebanon. What happened in the previous match happened and we are looking forward to Maldives match. Whoever gets the chance has to finish it and I also want to finish if I get the opportunity."