Kathmandu, January 21

Nepal will be looking to end the 23-year wait for major international title when the national side takes on Bahrain U-23 in the final of the Bangabandhu Gold Cup Football Tournament in Dhaka on Friday.

The match at the Bangabandhu National Stadium is Nepal’s first final in 17 years and coach Bal Gopal Maharjan is pinning hopes on his players to repeat the semi-final show. Nawayug Shrestha scored a hat-trick in Nepal’s 4-1 thumping victory over the Maldives that set the championship date with Bahrain U-23 team.

“The win against the Maldives has really boosted the players’ morale and they are excited to go into the final match,” Maharjan said, who led the youth team to victory in the AFC U-19 Championship on home soil in August last year. “The opponents are physically superior and they are good in set pieces. We are technically good and need to foil their attempts. We have a chance to win the title after a long time and for that we have to play as we did against the Maldives,” he said. Bahrain assistant coach D Nasr said his team was ready to win trophy. “We are close to winning the trophy, we came here with a young team focusing on building the team for future,” said Nasr.

Nepal began the campaign with a goalless draw against Felda United of Malaysia and defeated Sri Lanka 1-0 with Bimal Gharti Magar scoring the solitary goal. In the last group-round match, Nepal and hosts Bangladesh played a 0-0 stalemate to finish as Group A runners-up. Nepal then exhibited a strong show in the semi-final match against Maldives riding on a hat-trick from Nawayug Shrestha and one from Bishal Rai. The champions will receive $50,000, while the runners-up will get $25,000.