By a Staff Reporter
Two times champion Nepal will take on defending champions and host India in ongoing SAFF U20 championship in Bhubaneswar today. The match will kick off at 7:15 PM NST in Kalinga Stadium.
Nepal, India and Bangladesh are chasing for the spot in finals. Nepal, who had its dream start of the tournament, aims to book its spot in the finals with a game in hand defeating the home side India.
On the other hand, India’s door to the final will be closed if Nepal seals the victory this afternoon. Else if both the teams share a point today, Nepal must defeat Bangladesh in its final round robin match to step in the finals. Furthermore, if India defeats Nepal it will qualify to the finals and the match between Nepal and Bangladesh will decide another team to face India in the finals.
India lost its first game to Bangladesh by 2-1 and won its second game against Sri Lanka by a wide margin of 4-0 whereas Nepal won both the first two matches defeating Maldives and Sri Lanka by 4-0 and 3-0 respectively.
Nepal has scored 7 goals in its first two outings without conceding any. Managya Namarki and Kritish Ratna Chhunju scored two goals each whereas captain Ayush Ghalan, Dipesh Gurung and Sugam Suwal scored apiece.
Bangladesh is leading the competition’s points table with 9 points in three matches. Nepal stands second with 6 points from two matches. With a win and a lost India is in third position bagging 3 points. Maldives and Sri Lanka are yet to earn any points.
Nepal’s Fixtures:
Nepal VS India: July 31, 2022
Nepal VS Bangladesh: August 2, 2022
Final: August 5 , 2022
Final squad:
Goalkeeper: Ishwor Gurung, Unesh Chaudhary, Jiyarath Seikh
Defenders: Amar Shrestha, Sonit Dahal, Aayush Shrestha, Ajay Chaudhary, Sumit Shrestha, Srijan Dhani, Roshan Thapa, Abhishek Waiba
Midfielders: Dipesh Gurung, Aashish Rai, Sandeep Karki, Janmajay Dhami, Mohit Gurung, Kritish Ratna Chhunju, Sugam Suwal, Managya Nakarmi, Aayush Ghalan
Forward: Rohit Subba, Niranjan Malla, Rohan Khadgi
Head Coach: Meghraj KC
Assistant Coach: Balgopal Sahukhal
Goalkeeping Coach: Ujwal Manandhar
Team Manager: Diwakar Ghale
Team Physiotherapist: Lokendra Kunwar
