KATHMANDU, July 11: Nepal U-23 football team registered 1-0 win over Bangladesh U-23 in a friendly match at ANFA Complex on Tuesday.
Skipper Bimal Gharti Magar's goal in the 20th minute turned out to be decisive for Nepali youth side to defeat the visiting team in the match that was taken as preparation for AFC U-23 Qualifiers 2018.
After the match, Nepali head coach Raju Kaji Shakya expressed his satisfaction over the performance of his players. “Overall the performance was good. Our plan was to play in the same system that we are going to use in the qualifiers and we did that,” said head coach Shakya who used nine national players in the match.
Anjan Bista received a long ball from goalkeeper Alan Neupane and cut it to the right side of the 18-yard and passed it to unmarked Bimal Gharti Magar who slotted the ball into the right corner to produce the only goal of the match.
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With this friendly match Nepal concluded its preparations for the qualifiers that will be held in United Arab Emirates (UAE) from July 15-19.
Meanwhile, Nepal started the match brightly as the home side was the first to attack with Anjan Bista making a great run with the ball into the Bangladesh's danger zone but he failed to take a shot following obstruction by opponent defenders. After that, Nepal's attack that came in 14th minute, Bangladesh started dominating the possession. Visiting team increased its dominance further after the substitution of goal scorer Bimal in the 31st minute. Bimal who was playing as central forward in 4-5-1 formation was replaced due to injury with Bishwas Shrestha coming on. Head coach Shakya then pushed Anjan Bista to the central forward role. That change in the team saw Nepal failing to create chances in the remaining minutes of the first half.
However head coach Shakya said that the players failing to adopt 4-5-1 playing system which was new to them, was the reason Bangladesh dominated in the first half. “The system we used was new to the players so they struggled to adopt in the first half which eventually helped Bangladesh to dominate the possession,” added Shakya.
Nepal made four changes in the second half as Shakya gave chances to midfielders Pujan Uparkoti, Bibek Basnet, defender Laxman GC and striker Sanjog Rai in the rest of the second half.
Meanwhile, Bimal informed that his injury was minor in the post match conference. On the same occasion, he also said that Nepali team should have played more friendly matches for the preparations of qualifiers. “We have many players who lack international match experience so our team should have got chance to play more friendly matches against strong sides,” said Skipper Bimal.
Bangladeshi head coach Andrew Ord said that Nepali strikers were the main reason behind the match outcome. “Although we were better team in the first half, Nepali strikers made the difference pulling the goal. They were very fast and strong. We don't have such players in the team,” said Ord.
He also commented on the ANFA Complex's pitch adding that his team practiced on different kind of ground and that made a difference in the match. “This pitch is very different than the one we practice and play. It didn't help us to play our normal passing game,” concluded Ord.
Meanwhile Nepal will leave for UAE on Thursday to take part in the qualifiers where it will compete against host UAE, Uzbekistan and Lebanon at Tahnoun Bin Mohamed Stadium of Al Ain.
