Andrew Bascome, the Bermuda coach, admits his tactics will be primarily designed to frustrate Guatemala in tomorrow’s second-round World Cup qualifier.

Bascome has stressed the importance of making life difficult for Guatemala in the away first leg and is calling for an ultra-disciplined performance from his players.

The key requirement for Bermuda at the Estadio Nacional Mateo Flores, a 30,000-seater stadium, is simply to “stay alive” and give themselves a fighting chance in the return match at the National Stadium on Monday.

“I know where we are and I know where Guatemala are in [world football], so why shouldn’t we make ourselves difficult to beat?” said Bascome, whose side drew 1-1 against Puerto Rico in a home friendly last week.

“We must frustrate them and our tactics will have to be a lot different to how they were against Puerto Rico. Guatemala are going to be tough and we must be very disciplined and organised for long periods.

“Wouldn’t it be beautiful if we could get them back to Bermuda and still be in with a chance?”

Although Bascome said he intended to “block things up” against Guatemala, his master plan will also heavily rely on the counter-attacking ability of his pacy players.

“I know we can catch them on the counterattack because we have players with speed such as Reggie [Lambe], Zeiko [Lewis], Damon [Ming] and Angelo [Simmons],” said Bascome, whose side are ranked 126th in the Fifa world rankings, 33 places behind Guatemala.

“We may have to block things up a bit because we have to be solid defensively — that’s got to be my philosophy. There will be a lot of defensive organisation, keeping things tight, but we can’t just keep kicking the ball away. We’ll have to play some football too.”

Guatemala City’s relatively high altitude has also helped determine the way Bascome’s side approaches the game. The thinner air means fewer oxygen molecules are inhaled with every breath, which can have an adverse affect on players’ physical and mental capabilities.

Bermuda’s 20-man squad arrived in Guatemala on Tuesday in effort to acclimatise after experiencing similar conditions when they lost 3-0 to Mexico’s Under-23 side in Mexico City last month.

“We have to adapt or die,” Bascome said. “If you make a sprint and then another run, it takes you longer to recover because there’s a lack of oxygen as the air is thinner.

“Players can hyperventilate, which is not good because they panic. After the first training session in Mexico I wondered how we were going to get through the match.

“I can’t see us attacking with more than three or four players.”

Bascome is confident Bermuda can cope with the loss of Nahki Wells, the team’s captain, who made himself unavailable for the trip because of an ankle injury.

Reggie Lambe was deployed in a central striker’s position against Puerto Rico in Wells’s absence, with the Mansfield Town winger impressing with a workaholic display.

Bascome also has other options in Rai Simons, who signed for Chesterfield in April, and Jonté Smith, who completed a move to Norwegian second-tier side Floy IL in February.

“I thought Reggie was fantastic up front [against Puerto Rico],” Bascome said. “He showed good movement and I thought he did very well for the team.”

“It’s about the players that we do have rather than the ones we don’t, and we do have options without Nahki.

“We have Reggie, Rai, Jonté, a good group, and it’s about getting down to business now.”

Bermuda take on Guatemala at 11pm (Bermuda time).