Bangladesh will look forward to a winning start when they take on fellow South Asian opponents Afghanistan in the opening match of the AFC Challenge Cup Group C qualifying rounds in Bishkek today.
The match will kick off at the refurbished 19,000-seater Spartak Stadium in the Kyrgyzstan capital at 5.30pm Bangladesh time.
In their two previous meetings, Bangladesh drew 2-2 with Afghanistan before winning 4-1 in the Asian Cup qualifiers in 1979 at home although the two under-23 sides drew their SA games match in 2006 in Sri Lanka.
Hosts Kyrgyzstan, however, start as favourites after Laos’s 11th hour pullout on Friday reduced the action to a three -horse race.
Bangladesh, who hosted the inaugural edition of this competition in 2006, will have to topple both the teams as only the group winners are assured of a place in the finals to be held in south Indian city of Hyderabad from July 30-August 10.
With all of Laos's matches
cancelled, the home team fans will have to wait until May 7 to see Kyrgyzstan launch their campaign against Afghanistan though coach Nematjan Zakirov told thc-afc.com that the South-East Asian side's withdrawal hardly made matters easy.
"Though Laos are not participating anymore, these matches will not be an easy task for my players," said Zakirov whose charges lost to Oman 2-0 in a preparatory friendly recently.
The highlight of the group games -- provided Afghanistan do not upset the mighty odds stacked against them -- is set to be the Kyrgyzstan versus Bangladesh match on May 9 when the two renewtheir rivalry after the Nehru Cup last August in India where the Central Asians won convincingly 3-0.
While Kyrgyzstan lost to eventual winners Tajikistan in the semifinals of the inaugural edition of Challenge Cup, Bangladesh were ousted form the quarterfinals by the same opposition.
Newly appointed Bangladesh coach Abu Yusuf, who rued not playing any preparation match, was confident about his team’s chances.
"We have played before against Kyrgyzstan and Afghanistan and their level is the same as ours," said Yusuf after arriving in the Kyrgyz capital.
"Sometimes you might not play good, might not understand your partners, but this time wc understand each other well, and I hope with our good planning we can win," the former Bangladesh defender said.
One match less in the qualifiers, however, will frustrate Bangladesh’s plans as they are looking forward to play as many international matches as possible s preparation for next month's SAFF Championship in Sri Lanka and Maldives.
The opening match would be still important for Yusufs men, who have been drawn with the Afghans in their SAFF Championship group.
Despite their law FIFA ranking of 196, Afghanistan coach Klaus Staerk was optimistic of a decent show.
"We have to show our best performance and everything will be fine," said Staerk, who led the Afghans in the opening instalment of this tournament in Dhaka where they finished at the bottom of their group with two draws.
"If we lose then it is still not a problem but we expect to perform to the best of our ability."
Sri Lanka became the first team to qualify for the finals from Group A with a draw against hosts Chinese Taipei and a win over Guam before thrashing contenders Pakistan 7-1 to the top position last month.
DPR Korea. Turkmenistan, hosts India and Myanmar have direct entry to the finals of the tournament which helps to achieve AFC's aim of raising the level playing field within Asia besides helping to discover home grown talent.