Lalitpur, August 28

Both Nepal and India will be eying the trophy when they clash in the final of the SAFF U-19 Championship at the ANFA Complex grounds on Saturday.

Nepal coach Bal Gopal Maharjan said his team was ready to break the India jinx, while his counterpart Syed Sabir Pasha said his team was here to win the championship.

“We are committed to giving our cent per cent as we don’t have to save energy for the next match,” said Maharjan at a press meet today. “Looking back, we have lost a number of matches at various age level tournaments against India. But this time around, we will play to our potential which will be enough to take revenge,” he added. Nepal have lost to India on three occasions, all in U-16 level, in the last four years.

“It will not be easy as India are one of the strong teams of the tournament,” said Maharjan. “But we have performed well in our previous three matches and we are confident of making it to four tomorrow,” he added. “They are technically and tactically strong and we need to break that to win the match and the trophy,” said Maharjan.

Maharjan said the team’s morale was high following their victory over Afghanistan. “If we can beat a team like Afghanistan, who were physically tough, we can defeat any team,” he said. “We have utilised the set pieces in our previous matches and we will look to do the same against India. And as their goalkeeping is their weak point, we will have to capitalise on that with long-range shots,” he said.

India coach Pasha said his team had good chance to win the tournament.

“We have created a lot of chances in the previous matches but have not been able to convert them. We will have to improve on that and the trophy is ours,” he said. “We respect Nepal and they are a strong side. I am hoping a good match tomorrow and it will be a test for my boys,” added Pasha.

Asked about the pressure of playing against home crowd, Pasha said his boys experienced that in the match against Bangladesh. “There will be 3,000 fans but the noise will be of 15,000 spectators. We played against the crowd in our previous match and we hope we will have some 40-50 supporters to motivate us in the final,” he said.

Pasha said the team utilising the early opportunity would win the trophy. “Whichever team takes the early chance will go on to win the tournament. I think it’s going to be the one-goal match,” he added. “Nepal have strong attacking players and some individuals who can do the job. We will need to defend well to stop them,” he added.

Nepal opened the campaign with a 3-1 victory over Bhutan before beating Bangladesh 2-1 in the group stage and defeated Afghanistan 3-2 in the semi-finals, while India beat Afghanistan 2-0 and edged Maldives 3-0 in group stage before edging past Bangladesh in sudden death to make it to the final.