Nepal’s goal is to win over Hong Kong

KATHMANDU: SEPT. 21 – The Nepali women’s team, which arrived in Uzbekistan for the AFC Women’s Asia Cup qualifiers, is facing Hong Kong in its second match today. The match will be played at 3:45 pm Nepali time at the Mazmuesi Stadium in Uzbekistan.

Earlier, Nepal had lost the first match 2-1 in the last match despite taking the lead with the Philippines. Nepal had earlier played two matches against Hong Kong but both the results were in favour of Hong Kong.

The Nepali women’s football team started its first international tour 35 years ago by playing against Hong Kong. Therefore, Nepal will naturally try to enter the field with confidence with its first international rival.

Nepal played in the AFC Women’s Asian Cup in 1986 in international football. Now, Nepali players will try to forget the defeats of the past when they faced Hong Kong for the selection of the same competition.

However, it is believed that Nepal can defeat Hong Kong as it has shown courage against the strong Philippines. Even the most star striker of the Nepali team, Savitra Bhandari, was absent due to injury.

Nepal, which lost 1-0 to Hong Kong in the first match 35 years ago, will try to get the old result in their favour on Tuesday. This is Nepal’s first meeting since losing 3-0 for the last time in 1989. Before that, in 1986, Nepal had lost 1-0 in the first international tournament.

But in 2018, the Nepali departmental team APF competed with the national team of Hong Kong when the AFF won 3-1. So this time Nepal is able to give a tough challenge to Hong Kong.

Having competed three times in a row in important AFC tournaments, Nepal is once again trying to get to the same place. In preparation for the selection competition, Nepal played two friendly matches against Bangladesh at home.

However, this time coach Gary Phillips has given a chance to seven new faces in the Nepali team. In which Preeti Rai and Sabita Rana have kept themselves as rising stars by scoring goals in their ‘debut’ game.