Lalitpur, October 25

The women’s national team is on Friday leaving for China to prepare for the 2020 AFC Women’s Olympic Qualifying Tournament.

The Nepali team will play three friendly matches in China. The tour is the last preparation for the team which will be taking part in the maiden 2020 AFC Women’s Olympic Qualifying Tournament slated for November 8-13 in Myanmar. Nepal will play two matches against Beijing Phoenix on October 29 and October 31, while the team will take on Beijing Sports Unity on October 30. A total of 22 players and four officials will leave for China. After the friendly matches, coach Hari Khadka will pick up the 20-member final squad for the Qualifiers in Myanmar.

According to Khadka, five players from the national team will return to Nepal from China, while three footballers from U-19 side — Saru Limbu, Anjana Rana Magar and Manjari Kumara Yonjon — will join the squad in Myanmar.

Nepal will open the Olympic Qualifiers campaign with a match against India on November 8, while they face hosts Myanmar three days later. Nepal will then take on Bangladesh on November 13. All matches will be played at the Thuwunna Stadium in Yangon. Coach Khadka said the China tour would be helpful in shaping up the team for Olympic Qualifiers.

“We will assess the performance of all the players during three friendly matches in China. The matches will give us idea about the areas to improve and we will try to take the most out of the tour,” added Khadka. “We have a balanced side with strong forward line. We need to work a little bit in defense and we will do that during China tour.”

Khadka said the team’s target in Myanmar was to qualify for the Olympics as best runners-up. “We know India and Myanmar are strong sides and we have taken the Qualifiers as opportunity and challenge. We need to put in our best performance.” A total of 18 teams — divided into four groups — are taking part in the first round of the Qualifiers. The group winners, runner-ups and two best third-placed teams will advance to the second round, where they will join Vietnam and Uzbekistan — who received byes as sixth and seventh ranked teams in the FIFA Women’s World Rankings.

The 12 teams will then be divided into three pools and the group winners will make it to the third round. Top five ranked teams — Australia, North Korea, China, South Korea and Thailand — have been directly drawn in third round.

The teams will be divided into two groups with top two from each pool making it to the final round. Out of the four teams in the final round, top two will earn berths in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.