Bangladesh women's football team are set to play two FIFA friendly matches away to United Arab Emirates in late February, close to four months after retaining the SAFF Women's Championship crown.

The women in red and green, ranked 132nd in the world, will play their first match on February 26 and the second one on March 2.

"In the post-Covid era, we don't get response from other countries for friendly matches. Global economic crisis is another reason for not getting adequate response. Considering everything, we have agreed to play two matches against UAE, the first of which will be during FIFA window and the second one will be played outside the window," BFF women's committee chairman Mahfuza Akter Kiron said on Monday, adding that the matches will help the team prepare for the AFC Women's Asian Cup Qualifiers in June.

Since the SAFF win on October 30 last year, the Bangladesh players enjoyed a long vacation before starting to return to Dhaka on January 2 for the national camp, which got underway on January 5 at the BUET ground.

Though the junior players joined the camp from the start, seniors started joining from January 15 while defender Anai Mogini stayed home after getting married and Shamsunnahar Jr joined two days ago after attending to her sick father.

Head coach Peter Butler is expected to take over the training sessions from assistant coach Mahbubur Rahman Litu tomorrow after arriving in Dhaka on Monday.