Anil Gurung and Bharat Khawas scored one apiece for Nepal within the first 31 minutes to the delight of capacity crowd home fans. Gurung netted in the 18th and Khawas in the 31st minute in the stadium having capacity of 18,000 spectators.
With Saturday"s win, Nepal holds the record of five wins, 10 defeats and one draw previously out of 16 matches. Nepali team criticized since long for poor abilities wasted as many as four other scoring chances Saturday. In the second half Nepal appeared hurrying to score. Besides scoring, Nepal dominated the ball possession and created half a dozen other chances.
Bangladesh meanwhile, tried to build the game, but failed to make any dangerous attacks on goal. Nepal came up with short as well as long passes.
´Nepal looked more confident than Bangladesh but seemed to be in a hurry to score and wasted two clear scoring chances in the second half,´ former national team midfielder and ANFA Academy coach Bal Gopal Maharjan told Republica.
Nepal came up in 4-4-1-1 formation making some changes in previous positions of some players. Coach Jack Stefanowski has changed regular defender Rohit Chand"s position to center midfielder and Bharat Khawas was given the attacking midfielder"s role. Anil Gurung was the lone striker of the home team.
Jagjeet Shrestha, replaced after the interval by Prakash Budathoki marked his debut in the national jersey, and Bhola Silwal were the wingers of Nepali team. Nepali stubborn defense line-up consisted of skipper Sagar Thapa, Sandip Rai, Rabin Shrestha and Biraj Maharjan. Kiran Chemjong took the charge of the post and Raju Tamang, the other midfielder was replaced by forward Jumanu Rai and Anil Gurung was substituted during the fading moments by midfielder Bikram Lama.
In the very third minute, Gurung missed chances failing to control Sandip Rai"s pass. In the 67th minute, Bangladeshi custodian Mamun Khan brilliantly prevented a well-placed chipping by Anil Gurung from the area. Five minutes later, Tamang instead of passing the ball to unmarked Budathoki and Khawas ended up firing wide from the arch. In the 74th, Khan punched a quick scorcher of Chand from the arch. In the 80th, Gurung wasted a golden scoring chance firing wide from the area with only custodian Khan as his obstacle in an acute pass of Khawas.
Bangladesh"s only threatening attack came in the 81st but Jamal Bhuiyan"s shot went off the target taking a deflection off a Nepali defender.
In the 83rd, Chand squandered scoring opportunity at an open net as he failed to properly connect a back pass by Rai. Yet again Chand missed a chance in the first minute of stoppage time as he failed to beat glovesman Khan in one-on-one situation.
5 million raised from gate money
KATHMANDU: All Nepal Football Association has raised around Rs 5 million from Saturday"s inaugural match.
The stands of the parapet having 18,000 seating capacity were jam-packed with enthusiast home supporters. The gate money was fixed at Rs 700 for covered parapet and Rs 300 for ordinary parapet.
According to ANFA CEO Indraman Tuladhar, they have yet to calculate the total number of tickets sold. ´We don"t have the accurate calculation about the ticket and game money. But we have estimated it to be around Rs 5 million,´ Tuladhar said.
Related story
Nepal secures historic win against India, enters SAFF Women’s C...
_20191222200001.jpg)
