Bangladesh pitted against familiar Maldives in World Cup pre-qualifiers

Bangladesh are set to play against a strong yet familiar Maldives in the first round of joint qualifiers of 2026 FIFA World Cup and 2027 Asian Cup as the draw for the first round was held at AFC headquarters in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on Thursday.

Bangladesh (ranked 189th) will first play the away match on October 12 before hosting Maldives (155) on October 17.

The two sides previously clashed in a group-stage fixture of the 2023 SAFF Championship in Bengaluru last month where the men in red and green won 3-1. Maldives, however, won five of the last seven encounters against Bangladesh since 2011.  

At the same stage in the last edition of the qualifiers for the 2022 World Cup, Bangladesh had beaten Laos 1-0 on aggregate.

Although today's draw was supposed to be held with the bottom 18 teams, it was held with the bottom 20 teams instead as Sri Lanka got included in the draw, subject to lifting of FIFA suspension before the qualifiers begin.

Top 26 teams will directly play the Round-2, joined by 10 winners from Round-1. 

The draw of Round-2 also took place later in the afternoon, which showed that if Bangladesh manage to beat Maldives, they will be accompanied by Australia, Palestine, and Lebanon in Group I.