Online Desk: Bangladesh National Football team made their first practice session in Melbourne on the second day at the Yarraville Glory Football Club ground in Victoria on Monday evening, ahead of their away match against World Cup playing Australia.

The Bangladesh team, which reached the Australian city of Menbourne on Saturday midnight, made only gym and recovery sessions on the very first day (Sunday) at the team hotel to make the players fit following a long journey.

Bangladesh will play their first second round Group I match of the FIFA World Cup Asian Qualfiers against highly ranking and much superior Australia in Melbourne Thursday (Nov 16) evening,

The match will kick off at 8:00 pm local time and 3:00 pm Bangladesh time.

Soon after returning from Australia, the Bangladesh team will play their home match of the World Cup Asian Qualifiers against Lebanon on November 21 at 5:45 pm Bangladesh time at Bashundhara Kings Arena in Dhaka.

In a media briefing on Monday, Bangladesh captain Jamal Bhuyan said, “I am very happy to make practices in Australia (Melbourne) togather with whole team after two days, maximum of our players, except me and Tareq are little bit victim of local cold weather, I think they will adopt them with local condition within a day or two, and we have to play here in this situation”.

“Our players are confident; they concentrated themselves on the game, and the local windy weather will not affect the game inside the stadium,” he added.

Assistant coach of Bangladesh team Hasan Al Mamun said, “I am very happy with the day’s first session; the local weather is windy and comparatively cold compared to us. Initially, we took a little time to adjudge the ball, but we will be able to overcome it soon.”

“In the day’s first practice session, we focused on our strategy to face our tough rivals, marking their strong zone. All of our players are now fully fit and are eagerly waiting to do something better,” he further said.

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 a 0-5 goal defeat in their away match in Perth and conceded a 0-4 goal defeat against them in their home match in Dhaka.

Australia was eliminated from the last FIFA World Cup in Qatar, losing to World Champions Argentina by 1-2 goals.

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.