Bengaluru (June 21) – Kuwait made it a winning start in the SAFF Championship as they beat Nepal 3-1 in the opening game today.
Kuwait is one of the two teams outside the South Asian region that competes in this year’s SAFF Championship. Lebanon is the second team which is placed in Group B.
The Middle Eastern side’s dominance was evident early in the game played at the Sree Kantreeva Stadium in Bengaluru.
Nepal’s defence was busy even in the early stages of the game. Mohamed Abdulla’s effort in the 12th minute was not on target, and the Nepalese goalkeeper was forced to make a good save three minutes later.
The opening goal of the match came in the 23rd minute, with Kuwaiti Captain Khalid Hajiah getting to the end of a cross from a corner kick.
Kuwait doubled their lead in the 40th minute after a well worked counterattack. Shabaib Al Khaldi controlled the ball in the box and managed to get past a Nepali defender to slot the ball into the bottom corner.
Striker Mohamed grabbed a third goal for Kuwait in the 65th minute. Nepali defender Ananta Tamang was guilty of a handball that resulted in the spot kick.
Nepal got on the score sheet when Anjan Bista’ s low shot from inside the box found the bottom corner to give a glimmer of hope. However, a comeback was not on the cards as Kuwait comfortably controlled the rest of the game to grab all 3 points.
Nepal Team's Italian coach Vincenzo Alberto Annesse said they can learn from today's game and there are lots of positive things in the second half of this game to carry forward.
"Kuwait and India with star players. We then have Pakistan with many international players. They will have a very good team. I believe we can play the way we played in the second half against Kuwait. We can make it difficult for any team." Vincenzo stated.
Kuwait Coach, Portugese Rui Bento is happy that his side won the game, but he believes the performance of the team and the whole game management needs to be improved.
