Bangladesh are looking forward to completing their AFC U-19 Championship Qualifiers campaign on a winning note when they take on Sri Lanka in their last Group B match at the Hisor Central Stadium in Dushanbe, Tajikistan today.

Bangladesh's hopes of qualifying for the final round all but evaporated after a single-goal defeat against favourites Uzbekistan in the third match, which left them in third position with four points. Uzbekistan are top of the group with nine points, followed by Tajikistan on seven.

The ten group champions and five best runners-up teams will go through to the 16-team final round, and Bangladesh only have an outside chance of finishing as runners-up, depending on a lot of ifs and buts.

If Tajikistan (+10 goal difference) lose to Uzbekistan and Bangladesh (0 goal difference) beat Sri Lanka by a big margin so as to overtake Tajikistan on goal difference, only then they can finish as runners-up.

However, coach Mahbub Hossain Roxy is not thinking about the second position; he wants to end the campaign on a winning note. 

“I am not thinking whether we can become group runners-up, rather we want to complete the tournament with a victory which is more important for us. All's well that ends well. We want to keep our consistent performance in the tournament and keep that consistency by beating Sri Lanka,” Roxy said yesterday.

“Everything is possible in football, but we don't know what margin of victory would be favourable for us because hosts Tajikistan will play against Uzbekistan after our match,” Roxy said when asked about the possibility of a second-place finish in the five-team group. 

“Before leaving the country, we said that we would like to beat Maldives and Sri Lanka and secure a point in the two matches against Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Our target will be fulfilled if we can secure three points against Sri Lanka,” Roxy added.