By Karuna Thapa
Kathmandu, March 24
On Thursday (today), the Nepali national football team, which is preparing for the AFC Asian Cup final round, plays Thailand in an international friendly match.
At 6:15 p.m. Nepali time, the match between Nepal and Thailand will begin at Chonburi
Stadium. Thailand and Nepal are both using it as a warm-up for the Asian Cup.
Jordan, Kuwait, and Indonesia, together with Nepal, are in Group A of the selection game.
Uzbekistan, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives are also members of the Thai group.
Nepal will play with Thailand since Thailand and Indonesia have close teams and their levels are comparable to Jordan and Kuwait.
In the meanwhile, Thailand wishes to warm up by playing South Asian Nepal before facing Sri Lanka and the Maldives. In a pre-match press conference on Wednesday, Nepal’s head coach Abdullah Almutairi expressed the same thing. The match versus Thailand, he suggested, will be effective for the Asian Cup qualifiers.
Before going for Thailand, Almutairi had intended to win Thailand during his finale in Nepal.
Machhindra FC’s players are not in the national team this time since they are practicing for the APC Cup. As a result, fresh players have an opportunity, according to Almutairi.
There are no published figures on the number of games Nepal has played against Thailand.
However, statistics show that Nepal will play Thailand for the first time in three decades.
In the 1987 Olympic qualifiers, Nepal had two games against Thailand. Nepal was defeated 3-0 and 2-1 in both games.
