Sports News Desk: Bangladesh national football team left for Qatar on Friday to take part in their final Group I FIFA World Cup 2026 and AFC Asian Cup 2027 joint qualifiers round-2 match against Lebanon without two players who were in the 23-member squad for their tie against Australia held a day earlier.
The duo that got axed are defender Mehedi Hasan and Rabbi Hossain Rahul. It was Mehedi’s own goal in the 29th minute that left Bangladesh trailing before forward Kusini Yengi scored in the 62nd minute for the Socceroos’ 2-0 win at the Kings Arena on Thursday.
The match between Bangladesh and Lebanon will be held at the Khalifa International Stadium in Ar Rayyan, Doha, on June 11.
Key defender Bishwanath Ghosh and midfielder Mojibor Rahman Jony, who missed the Australia game due to suspension, will be back to face Lebanon.
Australia, who are 160 places ahead of Bangladesh (184th) in the current FIFA rankings, won their home game in Melbourne 7-0 in November 2023.
But Cabrera was satisfied with his team’s brave show in the second-leg and believed that this show would give his charges confidence to do well against Lebanon, who were held to a 1-1 draw by Bangladesh in the first-leg in Dhaka.
‘Yesterday [Thursday], we had a great match… We played against a team that has been playing at the highest level of football for so many years. We have come from 7-0 to 2-0. The way we got it, I think, in defence we showed at extremely high level, and that has to be the standard [for Bangladesh] now. Definitely, it will give us confidence now against Lebanon,’ said Cabrera before leaving for Qatar on Friday.
Australia, who have already advanced to the third round of the qualifiers, beat another third-round qualified team, Palestine, 1-0, and Lebanon, 2-0 and 5-0, in their other games.
Bangladesh, who are already out of contention for the third round, are at the bottom of the table with just one point from five games.
