As Bangladesh already slipped out from the qualifying stage after losing both the matches, the last qualifier match between Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates will elucidate who are going to qualify as the Group-D champions of the AFC Under-16 Championship today (Sunday).
Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates National Under-16 Football Teams will engage today at 6:00 pm at country's premier football venue Bangabandhu National Stadium.
In earlier matches, Saudi booked a 5-1 win over host Bangladesh on Wednesday while Emirates won over Bangladesh by 6-1 margin on Friday.
UAE boys seemed stronger and experienced among the two opponents according to the recent FIFA world rankings, Emirates are placed 70th in the world and fifth in Asia while Saudis are placed 93rd in the world and tenth in Asia.
Emirates boys played a lot of practice matches against several age-based teams of clubs and national level. Earlier in the pre-match briefing on Tuesday, their coach Abdulla Al Shahin said that his boys were taking preparation for a long time and played numerous friendlies and practice matches at home and abroad.
Yet Saudi Arabia, the two-time champions of the event will also try their best to win the match against the runners-up of 1990.
The winners will directly qualify for the next level as the group-champions.
Before their last encounter, both the Arab challengers had one-hour light practice each on Saturday at the BFF Artificial Turf adjoined to BFF House in Motijheel. Emirates boys practiced at 4:00 pm while Saudis practiced at 5:00 pm.