Victory needed to salvage team’s pride: Essa

LAHORE—Pakistan football team captain, Muhammad Essa said a victory is needed to salvage the pride of the team which will play Nepal in the last match of the two match series after suffering defeat at the hands of hosts.
“A victory can make things happen our way and to level the series and that is the only decent way for wrapping up the first ever Pak-Nepal series “, said Essa in a telephonic interview to newsmen here on Wednesday.
“We will be coming up with a different match plan to counter our opponents “, he said adding “ there were various reasons which contributed to our loss, first the match was played one day ahead of schedule which did not give the players enough rest besides team went straight into the match after a tiresome road journey of eight hours “, he said. Essa said the team was not lucky to beat Nepal despite taking precious lead midway through first half. It was really a fine start after marathon 30-hour journey from Lahore to Pokhara via Karachi and Katmandu.
“The goalkeeping error also played mistake for our defeat and the arrival of substitutes Bharat Khawas made all the difference when we were well on the way to victory. The home team was unstoppable in the second half. We conceded the first goal from the error of keeper and the team could not play well in the midfield”, he asserted. He said Pakistan team is fully capable of beating Nepal and the team management while taking notice of grey areas is working on remedial measures to lift the level of players performance.
Meanwhile, team manager Irfan Niazi expressed satisfaction on playing field of Pokhara Stadium which become the new centre of FIFA-recognized internationals. He appreciated the hospitality of Pokhara’s people. He also said Nepalese played stubbornly in second session. Nepali coach Bhim Thapa hoped to make it clean sweep of 2-0 with another show from their youngsters who put the game away from Pakistan in last 13 minutes.
He credited the win to the teamwork of the young players. “The aggression and fighting spirit of the young boys was behind the success on Tuesday,” said Thapa who brought in young guns Nirajan Khada, Santosh Sahukhala and Khawas after the break and their presence showed immediate effect. Nepal affected constant pressure, which resulted into two goals. Apart from Khawas, Chun Bahadur Thapa, Nirajan, Sandip Rai and Biraj Maharjan also made their debut for the national team Pakistan which were forced to play a match one day ahead of schedule after eight hour journey by road to Pokhara, lost it 2-1.Pak team management is hoping that team will be able to get a favourable result by overcoming all the adverse factors.
Pakistan has so far faced Nepal eleven times, winning three matches and suffering defeats in four matches, while four matches ended in draw. Pakistan managed 12 goals and conceded 13. The first FIFA-recognized international match between two outfits was seen in 1982 when cricket field of Karachi’s National Cricket Stadium was hired by PFF to stage second Quaid-i-Azam International tournament in memory of founder of Pakistan. Under captaincy of Akbar Raisani, Pakistan proved too good for Nepal with 2-0 win. SAFF and ANFA’s Current President Ganesh Thapa was among Nepalese lineup.
Three years later, Nepal again landed at Pakistan for the third edition of same now-defunct event at Peshawar and once again suffer defeat, 0-1 this time.
The thrilling bronze-medal encounter between two teams in second SAF Games at Dhaka 1985 ended in 2-2 draw and Nepalese get the third spot in the biennial Games with 3-2 tie-breaker win. The fourth and fifth clash between two nations were held at Tripureshwor’s Dasarath Rangasala Stadium in Kathmandu when Pakistan under took the tour of Nepal first time for two-legged Seoul Olympics Qualifiers 1987

.—Agencies