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Bangladesh coach Nikola Ilievski is set to revert to an attacking strategy and bring changes to his starting eleven as his charges are faced with a must win situation against Maldives in their last Group B match of the SAFF Championship at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium today.
The 57-year old Macedonian has been tinkering since his appointment as Bangladesh coach and seemingly is still not sure what his ideal formation and starting eleven should be. The unsettled Red and Green performed poorly in the two matches of the competition, drawing the first match 0-0 against Pakistan and losing the second against Nepal 1-0.
The Bangladesh coach said that they have no other option but to defeat Maldives and believes his side has to put together a better performance if they are to win.
However, despite all that planning, Bangladesh may very well be on their way out of the competition even before they take to the field, if Pakistan beat Nepal in the first match of the day.
Nepal are currently on top of Group B with four points followed by Maldives and Pakistan who have two points each while Bangladesh are at the bottom with a single point. If that is the case, Pakistan will emerge group champions and Nepal will finish second, ahead of Bangladesh on head-to-head count despite having equal four points, according to the tournament bylaws where the goal difference comes in second.
Bangladesh have not lost to Maldives in three previous meetings in the SAFF Championship and lost to them only once in overall eight matches since 1984.
