By a Staff Reporter
Kathmandu – Ten-man Nepal defeated Mauritius 1-0 in tensed encounter at the Dashrath Stadium on Tuesday to clean-sweep the two-match friendlies at home ground. Midfielder Sujal Shrestha scored the winning goal in the match which saw three players sent off.
Nepal had earlier defeated Mauritus by the same scoreline during their first friendly match on Saturday. Bimal Gharti Magar was on target for Nepal during the match.
On Tuesday, Darshan Gurung made an attempt on goal for Nepal in the sixth minute but his strike from outside the penalty box skied off. A minute later, Linsley Brasse of Mauritius tried to strike back but his shot misfired.
Sujal Shrestha gave an early lead to Nepal scoring in the 10th minute with a close-range finish. He utilized a back-heel pass from Pujan Uparkoti who managed to get the ball punched by Mauritius goalkeeper Loic Michel in a corner kick from Navin Gurung. This is the third international goal of Shrestha.
Two minutes later, Nepal captain-cum-goalkeeper Kiran Chemjong saved a penalty to deny an equalizer to the visitors. Referee Nabindra Maharjan awarded the penalty to Mauritius after Dinesh Rajbanshi felled Mauritius skipper Andy Sophie in the penalty box. However, Chemjong foiled an attempt to score from the spot by the Mauritius skipper and Eric Bista was quick to clear the rebound.
A powerful shot from 30 yards by Tej Tamang in the 36th minute went wide. Mauritius had a good chance to equalize in the 40th minute when goalkeeper Chemjong was not in his position but a shot from Adrian Bottler landed outside the post.
Goalkeeper Chemjong had a hard time controlling a shot from Vashist Culcutta from outside the penalty box in the 51st minute. Similarly, a shot from Manish Dangi in a free kick from Sujal Shrestha in the 62nd minute went narrowly wide. Andy Sophie was on target once again but Chemjong scrambled to foil his attempt I n the 68th minute.
The match turned tense in the 71st minute after both teams lost one player each. Nepal’s Pujan Uparkoti and Adrien Botlar of Mauritius received the marching order after receiving two yellow cards each. Nepal’s assistant coach Bikash Malla was also given a red card by the referee.
Mauritius were limited to 9 men in the 79th minute after the referee sent off Emmanuel Foolchund with a second yellow card for a bad tackle on Gautam Shrestha.
The match was halted for almost 8 minutes due to the problem in lights.
Both the teams were unable to add any more goals in the dying minutes of the game.
