The curtain of the new football season rises today with the inaugural edition of the Bangladesh Challenge Cup between last season鈥檚 treble winners, Bashundhara Kings and Mohammedan Sporting Club, at the Kings Arena.
The match is scheduled to begin at 5:00pm and T sports will televise the match live from the venue.聽聽
The Challenge Cup match is a match between last season鈥檚 Bangladesh Premier League champions and Federation Cup champions. As Kings have won both the league and the cup last season, Federation Cup runners-up Mohammedan will face them.
With the match five-time consecutive BPL and three-time Fed Cup winners, Kings will look to get back to winning ways after their terrible performance under their new Romanian coach Valeriu Tita in the AFC Challenge League 2024-25 in Bhutan.
Kings made an early exit from the group stage of the competition after losing all three matches to Nejmeh SC of Lebanon 1-0, East Bengal FC of India 4-0, and a 2-1 to Paro FC of Bhutan in late October and early November.
鈥楾omorrow鈥檚 [Friday鈥檚] match is very important for me and for the team. Because this match is after our bad results in Bhutan,鈥� said Tita at the pre-match press conference at the match venue on Thursday.
鈥業t was not easy for me to restart after that. I hope this will be chance for us tomorrow, and players will not make mistakes like what they did in Bhutan,鈥� he added.
Kings will miss the service of their key forward Rakib Hossain due to three successive yellow cards that he received in the last two matches of the previous edition of BPL.
Mohammedan coach Alfaz Ahmed, under whom the country鈥檚 popular Black and White outfits bagged the 2022鈥�23 Federation Cup title after a 14-year gap, was confident that his side will take the ground to win the match.
鈥楧espite some disruptions during our preparation, we have prepared well and will play to win it,鈥� said Alfaz.
Mohammedan, who have won the Federation Cup title for 11 times out of 36, never won top-tier BPL title since its inception in 2007.
