DHAKA: Bangladesh National Football Team is set to start their campaign in the seven-nation SAFF Suzuki Cup 2015 taking on current Champion Afghanistan in a group B match at the Trivandrum International Stadium in Kerala of India at 7:00pm (Bangladesh time) Thursday.

Star Sports will live telecast the match from the stadium.

Earlier in the day, Bhutan will play Maldives in Group B opener at the same venue at 4:00pm (Bangladesh time).

Seven South Asian countries, split into two groups, have been vying for the 11th SAFF Championship.

India, Nepal and Sri Lanka are in Group A while Champion Afghanistan, Maldives, Bhutan and Bangladesh are in Group B.

The Championship was reduced to seven countries and fixture was also revised after Pakistan Football Federation withdrew their national team for some internal problems.

In a pre-match press briefing at Hotel Vivanta Taj in Kerala Bangladesh coach Maruful Haque expressed his hope for doing well in the championship against Afghanistan.

He further said, “We are ready to play the Afghanistan, our team is doing training for last 18 days. The team is now experienced as they played many International matches this year including World Cup Qualifiers.”

“I am hopeful about getting a good result in the SAFF Championship 2015,” he added.

Head Coach of Afghanistan Peter Segrt said we are the defending champions and this time we are here to retain our position.

“We respect all the teams, every team is strong enough in this tournament,” he added.

BDST: 1133 HRS, DEC 24, 2015
SR/SNS