Kathmandu, August 13 :

Nepali football team will take on Bangladesh in its first match at the 10th South Asian Games (SAG) to be held at Sugathadara Stadium in Colombo on Monday.

Nepal is hopeful to win the tournament this time after the event was designed to be participated in by Under-23 players. The age bar imposed in the football has given advantage to Nepal as most of the SAG team members are from the national squad.

The road to final for Nepal is, however, very difficult as it is pitted in Group ‘B’ that also includes stronghold India. Nepal is scheduled to play against India on August 16 before taking on Afghanistan on August 19.

The first game would be crucial for any team to boast the players’ morale and Nepal would desperately try to defeat Bangladesh. The defence of Nepali team is a major concern with laborious and hard-tackling Pralay Raj Bhandari missing from the squad. The last minute withdrawal of another defender Suman Subedi has further weaken the defence.

Nepali football has a memorable history in the regional tournament winning gold medal in the first edition at home soil in 1983. Nepal had beaten Bangladesh 4-2 then.

Nepal claimed bronze in second SAF in Dhaka (1985) and silver in third SAF in Calcutta (1987). After failing in 1989 and 1991, Nepal reclaimed its lost glory in the sixth SAF Games beating India 4-3 in tie breaker after a 2-2 draw.

Nepal made it to the final in the eighth SAF Games at home soil, but lost to Bangladesh 1-0.

The last edition in Islamabad in 2004 was the most horrible for Nepal as the team returned home after the group stage and without scoring a single goal.

SQUAD: Ritesh Thapa (captain), Sangeet Kumar Rajak, Samit Rajbhandari, Sagar Thapa, Lok Bandhu Gurung, Santosh Gurung, Sandeep Rai, Anjan KC, Vijay Gurung, Vishan Gauchan, Pradeep Maharjan, Raju Tamang, Man Sajan Rajbhandari, Jeevan Sinkeman, Nirajan Khadka, Anil Gurung, Yugal Kishor Rai, Santosh Sahukhala, Jumanu Rai.