Hockey team upbeat ahead of HK tie

Fresh from a 5-0 drubbing of Thailand, the Bangladesh hockey team are looking forward to keeping their winning momentum in the Asian Games Qualifiers as they take on Hong Kong in their second Pool A encounter in Muscat, Oman today.

Though Bangladesh notched up an emphatic win in the Pool A opener, the men in red and green had to sweat to expose the defence of minnows Thailand, who had lost 1-6 to Bangladesh during their Hockey World League Round-1 meeting back in 2012.

Today's opponents -- Hong Kong -- are stronger than Thailand as they started the campaign with a massive 19-1 win over Afghanistan. However, Bangladesh are confident about continuing their winning run against Hong Kong, with the last meeting between the two sides ending in a 4-2 win in favour of Bangladesh during the AFH Cup in 2016.

Coach Mahbub Harun believes Hong Kong have improved much in recent times, but his charges will go for a win to ensure the semifinals.

"Hong Kong are ahead of Thailand, but we hope it will not be hard for us to beat them as we had beaten them 4-2 in our last meeting," Harun said. "Our players hurried in the attacking third for goals which is why they had to wait for long to get the goals against Thailand, but I believe if they play their natural game, goals will come automatically."

Harun tried his all players against Thailand except for Rezaul Karim to see individual performances, but he is likely to stick to his main players in today's fixture. The coach was supposed to analyse video footages of the match between Afghanistan and Hong Kong to decide his gameplan.

"We are mentally up after beating Thailand and we hope we will gradually improve as the tournament progresses," said penalty corner specialist Ashraful Islam. "We will take on Hong Kong after rectifying the mistakes we made against Thailand and we are confident about displaying better performance against Hong Kong."