Nepal football team arrived in Dhaka Thursday ahead of the two Fifa friendlies against Bangladesh on November 13 and 17.
A 36-man contingent of the visiting side, including 25 squad members, landed at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport at around 12:20pm through chartered plane, confirmed Bangladesh Football Federation media official Khaled Mahmud Nowmee to Dhaka Tribune.
The Gorkhas arguably became the first foreign sports team to visit Bangladesh during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Maldives top-tier champion TC Sports earlier came to the capital to play AFC Cup 2020 group-round fixture against Bangladesh Premier League champion Bashundhara Kings on March 12, the day Covid-19 outbreak was labelled a pandemic.
Bangladesh have the number over Nepal in terms of overall head-to-head records, but currently the Himalayan neighbor sit 17 places above the former in the FIFA ranking, while they also won the last meeting.
Posted by Sports Tribune on Tuesday, 27 October 2020
The Fifa friendlies are going to be the first official international game in Bangladesh since the government postponed sports activities in the middle of March.
The restrictions were lifted three months ago.
Bal Gopal Maharjan, the head coach of Nepal team, said after arrival: “Our government authorized to play the friendly matches. It’s also good for the upcoming matches of World Cup qualifying. I think this match will benefit both Bangladesh and Nepal team. We will try our best. That’s why we came here.
“Of course, we came for the friendly matches because of the Fifa ranking, we focus on that matter. Also, [focus on] not the result, which is one matter, other matter is performance also,” added the Nepalese tactician.
Nepal Squad
Ajit Bhandari, Ananta Temang, Anjan Bista, Bikram Lama, Bishal Shrestha, Kiran Kumar Limbu, Nawayug Shrestha, Ranjit Dhimal, Ravishankar Paswan, Saroj Dahal, Sujal Shrestha, Suman Aryal, Tej Tamang, Sesehang Angdembe, George Prince Karki, Bharat Khawas, Suvash Gurung, Dilan Loktam, Pujan Uperkoti, Bimal Rana, Deep Karki, Arik Bista, Darsan Gurung, Bikash Khawas.
Head coach: Bal Gopal Maharjan; Manager: Madhu Sudan Upadhyay; Assistant and goalkeeping coach: Kiran Shrestha.
