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Hosts Bangladesh will play their giant rivals and the six times World-Cup-playing Australian in their Group I of the Asian qualifiers for the 2026 FIFA World Cup in Dhaka on Thursday.
Australia, which arrived in Dhaka on Tuesday, will lock horn with Bangladesh on Thursday at 4:45 pm local time at the Bashundhara Kings Arena in the capital.
This will be the fourth meeting between two countries since their first meeting in the FIFA World Cup Qualifiers in 2015.
Australia won all three previous matches comfortably against Bangladesh.
They crushed Bangladesh by 7-0 goals in their home match of the ongoing World Cup Qualifiers, held in Melbourne November last year.
Australia also outplayed Bangladesh twice in the FIFA World Cup Qualifiers in 2015, by 4-0 and 5-0 goals respectively.
Australians were eliminated from the second round of the last FIFA World Cup in Qatar in 2022, losing to Argentina by 1-2 goals.
Ahead of the Thursday's match, both Bangladesh and Australia made their practices at the match venue Bashundhara Kings Arena on Wednesday (5 June) afternoon.
Bangladesh will play war-torn Arabian nation Lebanon in their last Group I away-match on June 11 at a neutral venue – Al Saad Club Stadium in Doha, Qatar.
The match will kick-off at 7:00 pm local time and 10:00 pm Bangladesh time.
On completion of four Group I matches, Australia dominated the Group Table to qualify for the next round with all-win record, securing full 12 points. War-torn Palestine are in the distant second, collecting seven points with two wins, a draw and a defeat.
Lebanon is in the third slot, securing two points with two draws and two defeats, while Bangladesh remained at the bottom with one point from four matches, after making a 1-1 draw with Lebanon in their home match in Dhaka.
Earlier, Bangladesh suffered 0-7 goals defeat against the World Cup playing Australia in their away match, drew 1-1 with the Arab nation Lebanon in the home match, suffered 0-5 defeat against Palestine in their away match in Kuwait and conceded a shocking 0-1 goal defeat in the dying moment against Palestine in their home match in Dhaka.
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