Sri Lanka will play at least seven international football matches during the next six months to give experience and exposure to country’s national players.
As part of Football Federation of Sri Lanka’s strategy to become one of the top football playing nations by 2030, a team from Lithuania will play two friendly matches against the Sri Lankan national players on July 8 and 11 at the Racecourse grounds. Both matches will be played under lights and will start 6.30 p.m.
The last time a foreign team visited Sri Lanka for a international friendly was in 2010.
The Lithuanian national team is placed 126th according to FIFA Rankings. Sri Lanka is in 200th position. Anura de Silva, the President of the Football Federation of Sri Lanka however confirmed that the visiting Lithuanian is not the national side of the country.
“There are some first and second level players involved in the side but I reckon it will not be their fully fledged national side. We got this opportunity through the Asian Football Confederation (AFC),” De Silva.
Soon after the two-match series, Sri Lanka will head to Japan and Korea as part of their preparations for the South Asian Football Federation Championships to be held in Bangladesh in September.
This will be followed by matches against Bhutan and Bangladesh at home ahead of the SAFF Championships
The SAFF Championships will take place in Bangladesh from September 4 to 15. Sri Lanka last won the title.
With the South Asian Games scheduled for early next year, Sri Lanka will also invite Malaysia, Singapore and Maldives in October to play international friendlies.
Sri Lanka has selected a squad of 60 players–divided into two pools of 30 each and currently trained under national coach Rumy Packeer Ali.
“Our target are the SAFF Championships and the South Asian Games,” said football President Anura de Silva. “We are giving our best shot at performing well at these two events”.
The South Asian Games will be be held from March 9-18 2019 in Kathmandu, Nepal.
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