Nepal to take on Palestine for consolation win

source: myrepublica.com

Kathmandu, 4 Nov 2009 - Nepal are competing with Palestine for the consolation win in the AFC U-19 Championship group ´A´ qualifiers as they have already crashed out of the tournament.

Nepal have lost their qualifying chance, though they won the match against Kyrgyzstan and contested well against other teams except Yemen. Nepal scored twice and performed well against Jordan but they repeated mistakes and lost the match 3-2. Nepal could not utilize the chance even as Jordan were limited to nine men during the match.

Nepal conceded goals due to their own mistakes and not because the opponents played better. The repeated mistakes of goalkeeper Dinesh Thapa cost Nepal the qualifying chance. Jordan had scored the second goal because of his mistake. Likewise, Tajikistan had scored the winning goal in the same fashion. However, Coach Raju Kaji Shakya didn´t replace Dinesh stating other goalkeepers didn´t have confidence.

The Nepal vs Palestine match has no meaning in the qualifiers as Palestine are also already away from the qualifying chance.

During the tournament Nepal scored five goals where Nirajan Malla and Shiva Shrestha shared the scoring tally to prove the young Nepali team had good scoring ability. Nepal are playing to win respect, said Coach Shakya, adding, “Though we are out of the tournament, we´ll play for win.”

Meaningful games

The top two teams of the tournament will qualify for the final round of AFC U-19 Championship. The race is open for the top three teams -- Jordan, Tajikistan and Yemen. Jordan -- which are at the top with 10 points, are taking on Tajikistan on Tuesday. Tajikistan have 9 points. Meanwhile, Yemen (8 points) will take on Kyrgyzstan.

Wednesday´s matches

Tajikistan Vs Jordan - 12.00 (Dasharath Stadium)

Nepal Vs Palestine - 2:30 (Dasharath Stadium)

Kyrgyzstan Vs Yemen - 2:00 (Halchowk Ground)