MD ANWAR ULLAH: Jamal Bhuiyan, the captain of Bangladesh football team, is jubilant to hear that the FIFA and the AFC announced a fresh schedule of the remaining matches of the World Cup 2022 and Asia Cup joint qualifiers.
While talking to the Independent on Wednesday Danish-Bangladeshi Jamal Bhuiyan expressed his happiness as they will return to play after the match schedule was announced.
Jamal left Bangladesh for Denmark soon after the FIFA, AFC and Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) postponed all the football activities in March (15) due to outbreak of deadly COVID-19 in whole world.
However, right after three and a half months, the world football governing body FIFA and Asian authority AFC made a reschedule to organise the matches from October.
Jamal said, “I feel good about it. I am happy to hear that we can play football again. I expect supporters will be there to enjoy the games.”
Jamal, who is a bit confused whether the situation will permit the supporters to come to galleries, anticipated a large crowds backing them and added that if the overall conditions don’t normalize, there is possibility to hold the matches with gallery empty.
“If the supporters crowd the galleries, it would be better for us and revamp our motivation to perform well,” said Jamal, who is highly optimistic to get the home crowds.
In reply to a query, Bangladesh captain confidently said, “But of course we want to win the matches no matter whether gallery is empty or packed up.”
Bangladesh will have to play Qatar at away ground and host Afghanistan, India and Oman but have opportunities to earn points from the home matches particularly against the SAARC duo.
Jamal agreed with this and said, “I think both of them are good opponents with good players. But I think India and Afghanistan are the ones we have big opportunities to get 3 points. So, on home ground, we will do our best.”
About their fitness after a long absence on the playground Jamal said, “I think 40-45 days would be good enough if there are some friendly games in between.”
Meanwhile, Bangladesh went down fighting against the strongest opponents Qatar (host of the 2022 World Cup) by 2-0 in Dhaka, conceded 1-0 defeat at the hands Afghanistan despite playing better in neutral venue Dushanbe, drew 1-1 against India conceding a goal on before two minutes left to final whistle in Kolkata and went down to Oman by 4-1 in away.
