Booters shrug off Melbourne mauling to focus on Lebanon

Leaving the disastrous performance against Australia behind, Bangladesh are looking forward to securing three points against Lebanon in their home match of the World Cup Qualifiers at the Bashundhara Kings Arena today.

The match will kick off at 5.45pm, with sports channel T Sports telecasting live.

Coach Javier Cabrera tried to get the players refocus on the game and motivate them since the team's return from Melbourne three days ago. The 39-year-old coach believes the experience against Australia will have a positive impact on today's performance.

"Definitely we had a lot of positive things to take from the match against Australia. From the beginning, I told the players that we had no interest in the score [against Australia] at all because we knew this could happen," Cabrera said at the pre-match press conference yesterday.

"7-0 to me has zero value or 4-0, I don't care. The team competed till the end in a very difficult contest and I am absolutely convinced that that is going to have a positive impact in the next game," Cabrera added.

Bangladesh put up a brilliant fight against Lebanon five months ago in the SAFF Championship where they eventually lost 2-0. However, the current Lebanon squad have only 10 players from that campaign, with new coach Nikola Jurcevic taking charge last month.

"We are very excited about tomorrow….We are convinced that we are going to give our best for Bangladesh and its people so won't see any difference between the two teams. We are absolutely convinced that we can play with them and we can fight to get three points," said Cabrera, however admitting that Lebanon will have a physical advantage while Bangladesh will enjoy home advantage.

In the two meetings prior to the SAFF Championship, Bangladesh and Lebanon had one win each, with the men in red and green winning 2-0 at home after suffering a 4-0 away defeat during the 2014 World Cup pre-qualifiers.

Captain Jamal Bhuiyan said that they have to forget the result against Australia and move on.

"Before the start of the World Cup Qualifiers, I said that we have chances to get some points against Lebanon and Palestine and things remain the same. We know if we can beat Lebanon, then everyone will talk about the win in the next five months, not about the defeat against Australia. I can say that we are ready for tomorrow's match."

"On paper, we are favourites but I told my players that the favourite team doesn't always win. We must show on the pitch. The match will be very difficult for us but our players are motivated and we will try to do everything to win the game," Jurcevic said.