Head coach Javier Fernandez Cabrera said that his side, known as the ‘Bengal Tigers,’ which is ranked 188th, wanted to prove their worth to fans at home despite facing Malaysia, who had an extra advantage playing in front of the home crowd.

“Playing in front of up to 70,000 fans only adds to our players’ motivation. The large crowd and atmosphere will be ideal to show everyone that we can compete against anyone.

“We want to give something to our supporters back home, so definitely we are going to give our best tomorrow,” he said at a pre-match press conference here today.

Cabrera said the squad’s nervousness was not an excuse for not giving their best in tomorrow’s game.

His squad is aiming to ‘kill’ Harimau Malaya by scoring early in the first 10 minutes in order to dominate the game.

“Malaysia is going to throw everything at us and we want to end the game in the first 10 minutes. In order to win, we need to be consistent and competitive,” said Cabrera.

His views were echoed by team captain Jamal Bhuyan, who admitted that his teammates were having ‘butterflies’ ahead of the match tomorrow.

However, the crowd would not dampen the spirit of his teammates, including the young players.

“For me and the rest of the players, it is a source of motivation, and could give us more energy, furthermore, we do not understand Malay, so there will be no problem.”

Bangladesh had previously suffered two successive defeats, falling 0-2 to Bahrain in their first encounter and 1-3 to Turkmenistan last Saturday.

Bahrain leads Group E with six points after two matches, while Malaysia and Turkmenistan are second and third with three points each, while Bangladesh is last with none.