India-Bangla friendly to be held on March 5

SHILLONG: The Indian national football team will play an international friendly against neighbouring Bangladesh on March 5 in Fatorda, Goa, the All India Football Federation confirmed on Wednesday.
The will be India’s first international friendly of 2014 and will be held on a FIFA friendly match day, allowing the game to count towards the rankings of the two nations.
India are currently 156th in the FIFA list, with Bangladesh eight places lower in 164th place.
A total of 30 matches have been played between the two countries, according to the AIFF website, with India victorious on 17 occasions. Bangladesh have won five times.
India have also scored more than twice as many goals as their smaller neighbours (41-20), but in the last match, the two sides ended all square 1-1 during the South Asian Football Federation Championship in Kathmandu last year.
March 5 falls in between I-League matches on March 1 and 8, so it will be interesting to see what sort of squad national coach Wim Koevermans picks for the friendly and whether Meghalaya’s Aiborlang Khongjee and Rocus Lamare get a look-in.