Sports Reporter :
Bangladesh Under-23 Football team have been billed in Group-H with Thailand, Malaysia and Philippines for Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Under-23 Asian Cup Qualifiers. The AFC Under-23 Asian Cup Qualifiers will be held in Thailand from September 4 to September 12. The draw ceremony of AFC Under-23 Asian Cup Qualifiers was held at Kuala Lumpur, the capital city of Malaysia on Thursday.
A total of 43 teams from Asia splitting into 11 groups will take part in the AFC Under-23 Qualifiers. Top one team from each group and four best runners-up and hosts Qatar will play in the final round of the AFC Under-23 Asian Cup. The final phase of AFC Asian Cup will be held from April 15 to May 3 in 2024.
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia are the reigning champions of this football tournament. Apart from Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Iraq, Uzbekistan, Japan clichéd the title of AFC Asian Cup for one time each.
India, Maldives, the United Arab Emirates and China have been slated in Group-G, while Pakistan, Japan, Bahrain, Palestine have been placed in Group-D.
According to the FIFA ranking, Thailand are the top team of Group-H, while Malaysia are the second team, Bangladesh are the third team and Philippines are the fourth team.
In October, 2021 Bangladesh were placed in the Group-D of the AFC Under-23 Asian Cup Qualifiers with Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Uzbekistan. Bangladesh lost Saudi Arabia by three goals to nil, Bangladesh suffered a 1-0 defeat to Kuwait, Bangladesh tasted a massive 6-0 defeat to host Afghanistan.
But this time Bangladesh have been placed in a group with not so stronger teams. So, it will be not a tough task for Bangladesh to snatch points from their opponent teams.
