FIFA, AFC Qualifiers: Bangladesh to play hosts Oman

Bangladesh will play Oman on Thursday in their fixture of the joint qualification round for the FIFA World Cup 2022 and AFC Asia Cup 2023 (November 14) at the Seeb Sports Stadium in Al Seeb city of Oman.

Bangladesh's first-ever match against tough and highly rated Oman will kick-off at 9 pm (Bangladesh time).  

Bangladesh was placed 184th in FIFA ranking while Oman ranked 84th in FIFA.  

Ahead of their match against the gulf nation Oman, Bangladesh team acclimatised themselves in Muscat for 10-day preparatory training camp there. 

After the last practice session on Wednesday, Bangladesh captain Jamal Bhuiyan said, Oman is very strong and well-organized team, they have some good players, who are very efficient to score goal, we have an idea about them after watching their match, but we also made good practices here, now our aim is to tackle team giving our 100 percent."       

The English coach of Bangladesh National team Jamie Day said the booters must work hard and display their best performance of the campaign so far to gain something from Oman.

"We have to be solid all over the pitch defensively," Day said. 

Bangladesh is likely to engage Oman in a tactical battle of attrition, keeping their defensive intact and looking to hit their hosts on the counter. Coming away with a point would be job done for Day's team.
  
Bangladesh are in Group E of the qualification round with Qatar, Oman, Afghanistan and India. Asian champions Qatar sit in pole opposition in the group with 10 points from 4 matches. Oman are second with 6 points from 3 matches played, while Bangladesh are bottom with a solitary point from their 3 matches so far. 

Bangladesh team started their campaign in FIFA and AFC meet with a 0-1 defeat against Afghanistan in the 1st match in the Tajik capital of Dushanbe on September 10, conceded a 0-2 goals defeat against Asian champions Qatar in the 2nd match in Dhaka on October 10 and played to a 1-1 draw against India in their 3rd match in Kolkata on October 15.

In the remaining group matches, Bangladesh will play Afghanistan on March 26 next year in Bangladesh, Qatar on March 31 in Qatar, India on June 4 in Bangladesh and Oman on June 9 in Bangladesh.