The curtain of the Bangabandhu Gold Cup International Football Tournament will be raised today with Bangladesh national side taking on Sri Lanka in the opening match at the Shamsul Huda Stadium in Jessore.
Meanwhile, this time two teams from Bangladesh will participate in the tournament with Bangladesh national team and the Bangladesh Olympic (Under-23).
Bangladesh national team will begin the tournament with targeting to win the cup to retrieve their status after a huge debacle in the SAFF Championship held in India when they were eliminated from the group stage with conceding defeats to Afghanistan and Maldives recently
“Bangabandhu Gold Cup is the best option for us to show our real character and also a big opportunity to have some respect from the soccer lovers of the country,” said Zahid Hossain Emily in a pre-match conference yesterday in Jessore.
Bangladesh national team could manage the runners-up trophy in the last edition of the Bangabandhu Cup when they went down to Malaysia with conceding a dying minute goal by 3-2, but they could entertain the home crowd with their impressive performance
 throughout the tournament.
Emily after conveying their target said that they are a balanced side and will offer their best performance.
“Hopefully we will play the best in this tournament, we have a good balance team and we just playing with only the target to win the title,” said the veteran striker, who forced to pull out from the SAFF team at the last moments due to illness.”
However, coach Maruful Haque, who was very much disappointed with his boys’ performance in SAFF, is looking forward to make it a fresh start with winning the opener against Sri Lanka. He recalled last year’s two FIFA friendlies with Sri Lanka with a 1-1 draw in Jessore and 1-0 win in Rajshahi would draw additional inspiration for the team.
But Maruful said, “I had only three days to prepare the team after our last match against Bhutan on December 28 but it is something positive what I have seen in the boys’ attitude, they are mentally and physically ready for tomorrow’s (Friday’s) match and we want to make a winning start.”  
Sri Lankan coach Sampath Perera, who came here with nine youngsters of SA Games squad and eight national players, played in the SAFF Championship said, they are taking part in the tournament as their preparation for upcoming SA Games while playing in the semifinal stage in the SAF is big inspiration for his team.