Daka, Bangladesh: Maldives national football team head coach Ali Suzain expressed that the Bangladesh friendlies have reignited the spirit of international football in the Maldives and instilled a sense of hope for the future.
Maldives secured a 1-0 victory over Bangladesh in the first friendly on Wednesday, marking their first international match in over a year. However, in the second friendly held yesterday, Maldives suffered a 2-1 defeat despite taking an early lead.
During the post-match press conference, head coach Ali Suzain reflected on the game, saying, "It was a good match. We had some chances, but Bangladesh played very well today. Congratulations to them on their win."
Suzain praised the Executive Committee of the Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) for providing the Maldives with the opportunity to participate in these matches.
"Actually this is a great opportunity for us, because without football we was without almost one year and they gave us this chance to be alive in home so many people feel that still we have a good chance if we have a good league, good football, we can improve a lot, so it gave us lot of hope, in home everyone is so much happy that, without any club football for a long time, without any international football for a long time we played this match good, so that's it."
Bangladesh coach Javier Cabrera stated that the approach for the second game was the same as the first. He noted that the key difference was the pressure they applied on the Maldives at crucial moments, which ultimately led to Bangladesh scoring two goals in the match.
"Despite the devastating critics after the first game embarassing things happened but we believed in ourselves always and we did everything we could do to win this game." Cabrera stated.
"The only big difference in this match was we scored two goals, we deserve to win the first game also, but we didn't but, today we win it despite not playing much better than the first game, so with this result we are relieved. It was not fair not to win the first game."
This year, Bangladesh played a total of eight international matches, winning only two and losing six. Cabrera expressed his major disappointment with not securing victories against Bhutan and in the first friendly against Maldives.
"Dissapointing not having a higher FIFA ranking," Cabrera stated.
Cabrera announced that he will discuss his future with the new BFF president, as his current contract is set to expire at the end of this year.
The coach also expressed that the inclusion of Leicester City midfielder Hamza Choudhury for the Asian Cup qualifiers will enhance the team’s technical and tactical capabilities.
He emphasized that Bangladesh needs to win more matches to build credibility and take responsibility for progressing forward.
