Almutairi wants to break ‘bad luck’ against Bangladesh

Afghanistan football team's head coach Abdullah Almutairi is looking forward to breaking the deadlock against Bangladesh in next month's two FIFA friendly matches.

Bangladesh have played three matches against the Afghans on home soil and are yet to lose against the central Asian nation. Two of those matches were during the 1980 Asia Cup qualifiers and the other a friendly match in 2015, however, Afghanistan have a better overall record against Bangladesh, with two wins in eight matches.

The first of the two friendlies will take place on September 4 and the second one three days later, both at the Bashundhara Kings Arena.

"It is not important to win or lose in friendly matches. The important thing is that we have come here to prepare for the World Cup pre-qualifiers against Mongolia. What is the benefit if we win the friendly match and lose the qualifying fixture?," Almutairi opined, after the team's first training session at the Army Police Ground on Monday.

The 41-year-old coach, however, said that he would be happy with a win on Bangladesh soil.

"I believe Bangladesh are a more effective team now. Don't look at the ranking which is something that doesn't work always. Faroe Islands are better than 50 percent Asian teams but they never scored one goal in European Qualifiers. Ranking is not important, the important thing is the performance on the ground. I think we will have to face difficulty against Bangladesh. We need to break bad luck because we never beat Bangladesh in Bangladesh. So I will be happy if we can break the bad luck," said the coach.

Afghanistan came here with a full-strength side, bringing their 10 of their foreign-based players. However, Almutairi hinted that he might not use all of them against Bangladesh in a bid to keeping their World Cup pre-qualifiers opponents Mongolia in dark.

"I think the number [of foreign-based players] is 10 who are from Germany, Georgia, Australia, Netherlands and other countries. We will hide our weapons for the Mongolia match because it is only a friendly match," said Almutairi.

The Kuwaiti also admitted that Bangladesh improved a lot under the guidance of Javier Cabrera.

"I think they have improved a lot. Now they have a stable tactic. They have bettered their performance. If Jamal (Bhuiyan) comes from Argentina, then we know how they will play. And if Jamal doesn't come, we know how they will play. We are waiting for Jamal because all tactic [of Bangladesh] revolves around him. We also know they are very good in one situation and one tactic, so I don't think they will change it to surprise us," said Almutairi, who had previously guided Nepal to a 1-1 draw against Bangladesh in the 2021 SAFF Championship in Maldives.

Jamal is scheduled to land early this morning and join the national team camp later in the day.