Chongqing: The Bangladesh U-17 national football team is set to face off against Timor-Leste in their opening match of Group A in the 2026 AFC U-17 Asian Cup Qualifiers at the Tongliang Long Stadium in Chongqing, China, today. The game is scheduled to kick off at 12 p.m. Bangladesh time.
According to Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha, the team’s coach, Golam Robanni Choton, expressed that the players are eager and ready to compete in the AFC Cup match. He emphasized that while all participating teams, particularly China and Bahrain, are formidable opponents, Bangladesh’s focus remains solely on their own performance. The coach highlighted their strategy of taking the tournament one match at a time, with the ultimate goal of qualifying for the Asian Cup.
Placed in the challenging Group A, Bangladesh will compete against hosts China, Bahrain, Brunei, Sri Lanka, and Timor-Leste. Following today’s match, they will face Brunei on November 24, Sri Lanka on November 26, Bahrain on November 28, and will conclude the group stage against China on November 30.
The Bangladesh team has set an ambitious target of reaching the finals of the 2026 AFC U-17 Asian Cup. The qualification process allows for seven group champions to advance to the 16-team finals, joining hosts Saudi Arabia and eight other nations already qualified for the 2025 FIFA U-17 World Cup. Historically, Bangladesh’s best performances in the past nineteen years have been as group runners-up in 2017 and 2022, narrowly missing out on qualifying as one of the top six runners-up on both occasions.