KARACHI: Pakistan football team reached Kathmandu on Tuesday evening after a long journey from Lahore via Qatar and will face Nepal in their first friendly game at the Dasarath Rangasala Stadium on Wednesday (today).
The match will start at 1:30 PST. The team had left Lahore at 2:30am on Tuesday and reached Kathmandu at around 6:40pm after a 16-hour journey. “It was a safe but tiresome journey,” Pakistan’s Serbian coach Zavisa Milosavljevic told ‘The News’ from Kathmandu while taking dinner at the hotel where the team are staying. “But according to forecast the weather tomorrow will be cloudy and there is a chance of a rain,” said Zavisa.
He said that the boys had been advised to take good rest. “The boys have taken their meal and all of them have been sent to their rooms for rest,” said the coach. The coach plans to hold a brief training session in the morning.
“Yes, I plan to hold a short training session in the morning tomorrow but all will depend on the weather,” Zavisa disclosed. Pakistan will play their second game on February 9 before moving to Maldives where they will take on the hosts in a couple of friendlies on February 12 and 14.
The team will return on February 15. The tours have been arranged to prepare the lot for the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Challenge Cup Qualifiers, which will be held in Kyrgyzstan from March 17 to 21.
Tajikistan, hosts Kyrgyzstan and Macau are the other teams in Pakistan’s group.
Squad:
Goalkeepers: Jaffar Khan (captain), Yousuf Butt, Saqib Hanif.
Defenders: Samar Ishaq (vice-captain), Naveed Ahmed, Kamran Khan, Muhammad Ahmed, Muhammad Hameed, Shabir Khan, Yaqoob Ejaz Butt.
Midfielders: Faisal Iqbal, Muhammad Adil, Yasir Afridi.
Strikers: Kaleem Ullah, Muhammad Mujahid, Hassan Bashir, Saeed Ahmed, Muhammad Ali.
Officials: Zavisa Milosavljevic (head coach/manager), Shehzad Anwar (assistant coach), Muhammad Aslam Khan (goalkeeper coach), Kamran Mehdi (physiotherapist/assistant manager).
From: The News