Online Desk: Bangladesh National Football team made their gym and recovery session at the team hotel in Melbourne on the first day (Sunday) ahead of their away match against World Cup playing Australia.

Bangladesh team, which reached the Australian city of Melbourne Saturday mid-night after a long journey, have no practice session on Sunday, and will make their first practice session on Monday.

Touring Bangladesh will play their first 2nd round Group I match against highly ranked and much stronger Australia in Melbourne on Nov 16.

Soon after returning from Australia, Bangladesh team will play their home match of the World Cup Qualifiers against Lebanon on November 21 at Bashundhara Kings Arena in Dhaka.

In a media briefing on Sunday, Bangladesh defender Rahmat Mia said, “We reached here after a long journey of about 24 hours, Alhamdulillah, we reached here safely and all of our players are in sound health, we made our first gym and recovery session today (Sunday) at the team hotel and we will make our practice session tomorrow (Monday).”

“Local weather is windier and colder than ours, so we came here four days ahead of the match. It will be very useful and also important for us to make practices within the period to adjust with the local conditions,” he added.

The Spanish Head Coach of Bangladesh team Javier Cabrera said, “we made recovery session today (Sunday) to make our player fit following a long journey, we will make practices tomorrow and have three practice sessions here which is a good opportunity for us to prepare the team ahead of the match”

Bangladesh played Australia on two occasions earlier under the present captain Jamal Bhuyan in the qualification round of the 2015 FIFA World Cup.

Bangladesh suffered 0-5 goals defeat in their away match in Perth and conceded 0-4 goals defeat against them in home match in Dhaka.

Australia was eliminated from the last FIFA World Cup in Qatar losing to World Champions Argentina.

Bangladesh earned the rights to play in the six-match home and away basis Group I matches of the FIFA World Cup’s Asian qualifiers with Australia, Lebanon and Palestine eliminating the Maldives in the round 1 match last month.

23– member final squad of Bangladesh:

Goalkeepers:  Mitul Marma, Mehdi Hassan Srabon, and Pappu Hossain

Defenders: Bishwanath Ghosh, Hasan Murad, Tareq Raihan Kazi, Rahmat Mia, Isa Faysal, Shakil Hossain and Saad Uddin

Midfielders: Sohel Rana, Shekh Morsalin, Mohammad Ridoy, Md Sohel Rana, Mojibor Rahman Jony, Rabiul Hasan, Jamal Bhuyan and Jayed Ahmed;

Forwards: Rakib Hossain, Sumon Reza, Foysal Ahmed Fahim, Rafiqul Islam and Mohammad Ibrahim.