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The Indian national team goes head-to-head with Bangladesh in their FIFA World Cup Qualifier match today at the Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium, Qatar.
Bangladesh preview
Bangladesh are the lowest ranked team in Group E of the FIFA World Cup 2022 Qualifiers. In the latest FIFA Rankings, Bangladesh were ranked at 184. They currently sit bottom of Group E with 2 points in 6 matches. A win against India will take them to fourth place, who are just one point ahead of their neighbors.
Under coach Jamie Day, Bangladesh have won just one of their last five matches. The solitary win came against Nepal in a friendly match. Out of the two points earned in the qualifiers, one came against India in October 2019 and the other came in their most recent draw against Afghanistan.
Bangladesh will rely on their key players like Jamal Bhuyan, Topu Barman and Anisur Rahman Zico to take home something from the match.
India preview
India have had a disappointing campaign, to say the least. Since the appointment of coach Igor Stimac, India have won just one match, drawing four. The rest of the 8 matches have ended in defeat.
India's best result came against Qatar when they played out a historic draw against the reigning Asian champions. The results after that match haven't been as good, though. India scored late equalizers against Afghanistan and Bangladesh and managed just one point from those matches. They are officially out of reckoning for the third round of FIFA World Cup 2022 Qualifiers.
India's aim now would be to finish third in their group to gain automatic qualification to the last round of AFC Asian Cup 2023 Qualifiers. To do this, though, they will have to win both of their remaining matches against Bangladesh and Afghanistan.
India are yet to win a match in the campaign and they will hope to get that elusive victory against Bangladesh.
Bangladesh vs India prediction
Both these teams faced each other in October 2019 in front of a packed Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata in the first leg. Bangladesh defended well for the entire duration of the match and even took the lead just before half-time. Just when India were staring at an embarrassing loss at home, Adil Khan headed the ball in to equalize for India.
Though the result was disappointing the last time they faced Bangladesh, India should be confident of getting an easy win this time. The Blue Tigers should get all 3 points convincingly considering they have a much better team.
Prediction: Bangladesh 0-2 India
