KATHMANDU, Oct 7: Nepal national football team has failed to win any matches in the 2018 Bangabandhu Gold Cup International Football Tournament with a 1-0 defeat at the hands of Palestine in Bangladesh on Saturday.
At the Sylhet National Stadium in Sylhet, Palestine dominated Nepal throughout the game not letting the losing team take charge of the possession, giving less space to work the flanks and also closing down more to prevent Nepal from creating any notable chances in the game.
Palestine then utilized the pace of the wide players to score the first goal as Khaled Salem scored the only goal of the game from the close blank range in the 69th to give Palestine the all important lead, which was all, but enough to get its second win of Group A.
Palestine looked a better side from the first kick of the game as it played passing football, worked the flanks and kept Nepal on the receiving side with a lot of crosses in the box and more chances created in the final third. But, the final ball was missing for the winning team in the first half.
Nepal found it hard to take the ball into Palestine’s danger area and gave away the ball in most of the occasions.
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Nepal then looked a bit comfortable of the ball come the eighth minute of the match taking the ball wide, but lost the ball. The final ball was the problem for Nepal as well.
Palestine got the first real chance of the game as a corner from Helal Mousa was headed wide by the Salem in the 13th minute.
Nepal then prioritized attack from the flanks, neglecting the middle area, but was beaten by Palestine’s pace easily.
Palestine got a more clear cut chances in the 16th minute as a passing football from Sameh Maraaba passed the ball to Salem inside the box, and he passed to Mousa, whose shot from just the edge of the box hit the bar.
Palestine focused on playing possession-based football giving no chance for Nepal to take the ball and take to the Palestine goal.
Palestine, with that brand of football, got a chance in the 21st minute as Mousa’s long pass to Salem went over the bar, while Mousa’s cross from the left flank was nearly in, but Nepal keeper Bikesh Kuthu fisted the ball away out for a corner in the 27th minute.
Kuthu was the only Nepal player who looked good in the game as he stopped many shots from Palestine keeping Nepal just in the game, but the attackers could not even create a good chance to score.
Palestine got yet another opportunity as Maraaba’s shot from inside the box after a passed from Mousa was saved by Kuthu again in the 31st minute. Again, Mohammaed Bassim’s shot from way off the box was saved in the 38th minute.
Mousa was in the thick of things in the game, and his short from just outside the box in the 67th minute went over the bar.
Nepal created some chances in the second half, but nothing notable. One of the few chances Nepal got was when substitute Nawayug Shrestha put the ball wide after he was through on goal with a long cross in the 79th minute. Palestine got other chances in the second half as well when Maraaba’s shot from just outside the box in the 18th minute was saved again by Kuthu.
Substitute Mahmoud Al Awisat hit a shot from outside the box was saved once again by Kuthu in the 86th minute.
Nepal has crashed out of the group stage with no goals scored and no points earned. Palestine, who also beat Tajikistan 2-0 in its first group game on Thursday, went into the semifinals as the group winner. Tajikistan went to the last four as the runner-up as it had defeated Nepal 2-0 in the first match.
