FIFA 2022 WC Qualifier | Know Your Opponent – Bangladesh
Playing Bangladesh would be tricky, to put it mildly, for despite being the weakest side in the group one cannot undermine their will to defend robustly to pull out a scrappy draw. However, India would’ve enough firepower to score from open play and set-pieces if counter-attacking isn’t an option.
History
Despite the Bangladesh Football Federation first being founded in 1972, it wasn’t until two years later that the nation became a part of the Asian Football Confederation. However, Bangladesh have got little success in both at the continental and world stage with their best record remaining intact in the South Asian level.
The Bengal Tigers have never made it to the World Cup finals so far and their record of the Asian Cup remains dismal as well – they were dismissed in the first round of their only tournament appearance in 1980. However, the Tigers have roared at the South Asian level where they have gone on to win the SAFF Championship once and clinched the yellow metal in South Asian Games twice. They won the silver medal as many as four times in the South Asian Games, and the bronze medal twice.
The side did well to qualify for the World Cup qualifiers as they downed Laos by a 1-0 aggregate. However, as far as their form in the group stages is concerned, Bangladesh have started on a poorer note, losing 0-1 to Afghanistan in their opener last month. Afghanistan would have been Bangladesh’s chance amongst all the group teams at least, in terms of paper.
Formation and Tactics
The national side has been in a dire turmoil and in an endless loop of changing coaches with Jamie Day finally looking a bit more settled than his predecessors. Stepping up following a brief stint with the U-23 side, the Englishman has managed to turn a corner for the good. Averaging 1.30 points a match, Day has been quite brave in his approach with the side in terms of the line-ups he resorts to.
Primarily fond of the customary 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3, the gaffer hasn’t just gone about chopping and trimming either his players or his formations. He has stuck to it despite losing consecutive games to the Philippines and Palestine before the side got a solitary win over Cambodia. Bangladesh have stumbled every now and then under Day but it was their double win against Bhutan that prolonged his stint.
However, Bangladesh would come into the match at the back of a discouraging home defeat against Qatar in their last group match. And given how Day fielded an unsuccessful ultra-defensive 4-5-1 flat line-up to stop the World Cup hosts, we wouldn’t be expecting too different a tactics against India as well.
Key Players
Given Bangladesh are expected to remain on the back foot for most of the match, their defensive leader Yeasin Khan is expected to be their main player on the day. The 25-year-old has been quite impressive at the back and would play a massive role if the Bengal Tigers are eyeing an upset. He has all the physical attributes and is the best in the team as far as the game-reading skills is concerned. Apart from his intelligent defending, Khan could also be a huge threat from set-pieces as well with his supremacy from aerial duels. He was one of Bangladesh’s main players against Bhutan in their last two international friendlies.
The other player from Bangladesh, who could be a huge threat for India would be their captain Jamal Bhuyan. The second most capped player in the side has been an FC Copenhagen youth product, and has been playing for his country since 2013. He had hogged the limelight back in the day when he had scored the historic winning goal for the U-23 team last year against Qatar's U-23 side that seen his side going through to the round-of-16 of the Asian Games 2018.
India's Approach
India’s approach is as pronounced as it could be and, in a way, Igor Stimac has very little to do about it for he doesn’t have much of a choice. With Sandesh Jhingan leading their injury list in terms of big names, India would also be without defensive-minded Pronay Halder through injury and Rowlin Borges through suspension.
Hence, defending heavily won’t really be a choice for the Croatian and he would need to go full throttle with given the players available to him. With Bangladesh trying to escape with a draw from this match, Stimac would need his best men up top and we could be expecting an attacking 4-3-3 to begin with. We would be expecting the trio of Sahal Abdul Samad, Udanta Singh, and Ashique Kuruniyan to start the match.