Cabrera hopeful about Bangladesh getting second goal of 2024

Bangladesh head coach Javier Cabrera's longing for a second goal from his troops this year was apparent as he hoped for "at least one goal" when they face Maldives in their second of the two FIFA friendlies at Bashundhara Kings arena today.  

Bangladesh's final game of the year will kick off at 6:00 PM and telecast live by T Sports.

The men in red and green had a dry spell in front of goal in 2024, managing just a single goal in seven matches this year – Sheikh Morsalin's winner away to Bhutan in a friendly in September.   

Bangladesh's initial goal was to notch up victories in both the FIFA friendlies against Maldives -- a side that Cabrera's troops got the better of twice and drew once in their last three meetings -- in order to secure a favourable draw in next year's Asian Cup Qualifiers.  

However, those hopes were dashed when Bangladesh, despite getting a number of good chances, suffered a 1-0 defeat in the first friendly against Maldives last Wednesday at the same venue. That loss could well be attributed to the team's continuation of firing blanks in front of the goal.  

"It was a disappointing and painful result after a good performance, a positive performance," Cabrera recounted the misses of the last game on the eve of today's encounter. 

"If you look at the situations, we reached the finishing zones many times when players were in advantageous positions to cross and had enough numbers in the box most of the time but it's difficult to explain why we were not able to score any goals the other day. 

"We will try to reach the opposition box as many times as we did in the previous game and we do believe that this time we will be able to score at least one goal," the Spaniard added. 

Midfielder Sohel Rana Sr also echoed the same sentiment as his coach, mentioning that they are hoping to "come back strongly."