Having defeated Nepal in their last encounter and won both of its matches played in the ongoing qualifiers, Palestine is in high spirits. Palestine occupies the top spot in the points table with six points, while Bangladesh and Nepal are in the second and third positions with three points each.[break]
Nepal must beat Palestine by a three-goal margin to keep afloat its hopes of qualifying as the group winner, which would put all the three teams -- Nepal, Palestine and Bangladesh -- level on six points if Bangladesh beats the weakest team of the group, Northern Mariana Island (NMI), in the day´s early kick-off. NMI was defeated 6-0 by Nepal and 9-0 by Palestine.
In such a case, points earned against the team finishing at the bottom of the table will not be counted and Nepal could finish as the top team on the basis of goals superiority among the three teams. However, if Palestine plays a draw against Nepal such equations will not come into play and Palestine could qualify as the group winner irrespective of the outcome of the match between Bangladesh and NMI.
Palestine´s coach Jamal Mahmoud said that his side has hoped for a good result against Nepal. "We will play a good match against Nepal and come up with our full-strength team," said Mahmoud, who had rested seven players from the starting 11 in its match against NMI. "We respect Nepal and will put in a lot of effort."
Nepal´s Polish coach Jack Stefanowski, however, insisted that his side still has chances of qualifying for the final rounds despite the defeat to Bangladesh. "We still have a match to play and will put a good fight," Stefanowski said.
Nepal and Palestine have met twice in the past. The last meeting between Nepal and Palestine was during the finals of AFC Challenge Cup held in Kathmandu in March, 2012. Nepal was defeated 2-0 then. Earlier, the teams had played a goalless draw during the Challenge Cup Qualifiers in 2009.
Matches rescheduled
KATHMANDU: All Nepal Football Association (ANFA) has rescheduled the matches to be played on Wednesday, the last day of the AFC Challenge Cup Group D Qualifiers being held at the Dasharath Stadium in Kathmandu. ANFA has rescheduled Wednesday´s fixtures citing the Nepal banda called by some political parties. The first match, earlier scheduled to be held between Bangladesh and Northern Mariana Island (NMI) at 14:00 NST, will begin at 15:15 NST. Similarly, the second match between Nepal and Palestine will kick off at 18:15 NST. The second match was earlier scheduled to begin at 15:05 NST.
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