Himalayan News Service

Kathmandu, March 26:

Nepal will take on Bhutan in the inaugural match of the ninth South Asian Federation (SAF) Games football tournament in Rawalpindi, on Saturday.

While other athletes are stranded at Gorakhpur due to 13-hour train delay, the Nepali Under-23 football team reached Rawalpindi on Thursday and also had a training.

According to All Nepal Football Association (ANFA) spokesman Lalit Krishna Shrestha, the footballers and the officials reached the venue on Thursday morning and had a training.

Nepal is in Pool B with Sri Lanka and Bhutan, while Bangladesh, India, Afghanistan and Pakistan are in Pool A. Maldives opted out of the tournament.

Nepal won gold medal in the first and the sixth edition of the tournament, while they finished runner-up in the last edition.

As per the fixtures, Nepal will play against Sri Lanka on March 29. Top two each from both the pools will advance to the semi-finals slated for April 3. The third-place and the final will be held on April 5.

SQUAD: Ritesh Thapa, Bikash Malla and Dilip Chhetry (goalkeepers); Sagar Thapa, Janak Singh, Umesh Upreti, Deepak Poudel, Anjan KC, Sajeev Budhathoki, Pralay Rajbhandari, Nabin Neupane (captain), Santosh Shrestha, Bijay Gurung, Pradip Dangol, Pravesh Katuwal, Raju Katuwal, Pravin Manandhar, Jibesh Pandey, Raj Kumar Ghising, Bisan Gauchan, Jumanu Rai; Coaches — Krishna Thapa and Dhurba KC.