An unforgettable visit to Bahrain

Nepal's visit to Bahrain in the two matches of the second round of group 'H' under the Asian qualifiers of the World Cup was completely forgettable. Nepal lost again 3-0 in the match at Rafa, Bahrain on Wednesday night. It was technically Bahrain's 'home match'.

Earlier, Nepal lost the game which was their 'home match' by 5-0. In this way, the Nepali team will return home after conceding 8 goals in 2 matches. This is the first time since 2019 that Nepal has lost four or more consecutive matches in international football. That means Nepal's performance has been bad again since 5 years.

In 2019, Nepal had lost 5 matches in a row since they lost against Australia in the World Cup qualifiers. No goals have been scored in these five matches. Even at that time, Nepal could not score any goal in 7 consecutive matches. This time, the number of games in which Nepal failed to score reached 4. This means that Nepal could not score any goals in the four matches of Group 'H', which is also the qualifier for the Asia Cup. Now it will be interesting to see how the performance will be in the 2 qualifying matches.

Nepal in Puchar

In the Wednesday night match at Rafa's National Stadium, all the three goals scored by Bahrain were scored in the first half. Based on the goal difference, perhaps Nepal's performance could have been considered to have improved. However, it itself remained a pattern of poor performance. This defeat has ended the possibility of Nepal mathematically reaching the third stage of the World Cup qualification by remaining in the top two positions and automatically entering the Asia Cup 2027.

The UAE is on top of the four-team group with 12 points after winning all four matches. Then Bahrain is second with 9 points. Yemen is third with 3 points. In the other group match on Wednesday, UAE beat Yemen 3-0. The strong UAE has not only directly qualified for the Asia Cup, but has reached the third round of the World Cup qualifiers. UAE achieved this feat with two matches left in the group stage.

Now Nepal's attention should be focused on the third stage of the Asia Cup qualifiers, where Nepal will face teams of at least equal status. The preparation should start now. Head coach Vincenzo Alberto Ennis gave Bharat Khawas, Jellespijung Karki, Sanjeev Bisht and Saubhagya Rai a chance early in the second match against Bahrain. Bahrain took the lead in the seventh minute of the game with Mehdi Baker's goal, while captain Abdullah Yusuf scored the second goal from the penalty in the 18th minute. Bahrain got a penalty after goalkeeper Kiran Limbu fouled Mohammad Marhanu. Bahrain scored the third goal in the 36th minute of the

game. This time Kamil Al-Aswad wrote his name in the account of the goal. In the second half, one of Nepal's attempts was not recognized. Sanjiv directed the ball towards the post on Sanish Shrestha's cross, but it was offside. In this match, Vishal Basnet got the opportunity to debut for Nepal.

Complaints about lack of experienced players

In the course of being presented to the media after the game, coach Ennis claimed that there was something good in the team's performance. He also complained about the lack of experienced players in the team. He said, "5 players made their debut in Bahrain. Of the players we have in the team, 16 of them are under 23 years of age. It means that there is no experienced player in the team. Again we did not prepare well. In this case, the way the players played, that is also great.'

coach Anis Bahraini seemed to be attracted to the facilities and opportunities that the team is getting. He said, "If Nepal gets the same facilities as Bahrain, our performance will be better." The most remarkable aspect of visiting Bahrain is that we come back with valuable experience. Bahraini players are physically fit. Their level of play is high. The main thing is that we don't have a league, the players only play in the local cup.'