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Bangladesh to end int'l hiatus

International friendly against Nepal today

Sports Reporter
1^ Football
After a nine-month long hiatus, the Bangladesh national football team will return to action today when they take on Nepal in the first of two international friendly matches at the Dasrath Stadium in Kathmandu. The match is scheduled to get underway at 5:20pm (Bangladesh Standard Time).
There is major concern, however, over the nature of the pitch which might be deemed unplayable following constant downpour, reports football portal goalnepal.com.
But despite the exhibition nature of the match, the national football team will definitely be focusing on an improvement in a bid to elevate their performance at the international level. They will draw motivation from
their last international stint, when the national side returned empty-handed after the 2011SAFF Football Championship, where they lost to Nepal 1 -0 and Maldives 3 -1.
Bangladesh had historically always held the upper-hand against Nepal, but the national team find themselves on the backfoot against the Himalayan nation who have gone from strength to strength and have put up admirable performance against mighty opponents in the recent past. Bangladesh are now ranked four spots below Nepal in the FIFA rankings.
Nepal have gradually improved in recent years. This was best evident during the SAFF Football Championship where they stunned Bangladesh 1-0 to break an 18-year long hoodoo against their neighbours from the plains. Nepal's brilliant performance in the SAFF Championship also helped them earn a place, ahead of Bangladesh, in Indian Nehru Cup. In
FROM PAGE 16 that tournament, Nepal held hosts and eventual champions India to a draw and showed plenty of improvement. Even the Nepal U-22 team have made giant strides and recently humiliated their Bangladeshi counterparts with a 4-0 defeat in the AFC U-22 Asia Cup earlier this year.
Bangladesh then, face a strong challenge against a Nepal side who are not only speedy and quick but also know how to take advantage of set-pieces. Both the Bangladesh senior side and junior side faced the consequences of this, conceding all of their goals to Nepal from set-pieces in both the SAFF Championship and AFC U-22 Asia Cup.
The statistics though, are still in favour of Bangladesh as they have posted nine including six straight victories (from 1995 to 2005) in 16 matches they played against Nepal. As such, a good start in today's game will boost the booters for the second and final friendly on September 20.
The Bangladesh team will be hindered in their prospects by a lack of fitness. The footballers have been out of action for over two months after the end of the professional football league and thus their conditioning will not be up to the mark. Coach Saiful Bari Titu has already expressed his concern about the fitness status of the players.
Bangladesh have played against Nepal at Dasrath Stadium four times with both having an equal record of two wins each.