The injury-hit Nepal take on Oman in their second match of the AFC U-16 Championship Group ‘D’ Qualifiers here at the Dasharath Stadium on Wednesday. In another match, Saudi Arabia will play Syria at the APF Headquarters grounds in Halchowk. Both Nepal and Oman will be looking to record first win to keep their qualifying hopes alive after losing their opening games. The losers almost certainly crash out even before playing the last match on Friday. The home team had suffered a 2-0 loss at the hands of Syria, while tournament favourite Saudi Arabia had thrashed Oman 3-0 on Monday. Nepal’s influential midfielder Rungri Hang Rai is suffering from fever apart from his leg injury, while another midfielder Sagar Lama has muscle cramp and forward Suman Lama has swollen knee. Nepal’s first choice goalkeeper Birendra Bahadur Chand has also hurt his finger. “Rungri has been ruled out of the remaining two matches,” confirmed Nepal’s coach Sunil Shrestha. However he was hoping Bijrendra, Sagar and Suman will be available for Wednesday’s match. Despite the injuries coach Sunil is confident of victory against Oman. “Both the side will be under pressure to record the first win. And we will do our best to beat Oman,” said the Nepal coach. Asked about Nepal’s strategy, coach Shrestha said they will adopt attacking game from the very beginning. “We have yet to pick up our starting-XI since we are waiting for some of our injured players’ clearance from team doctor. We will announce the squad only tomorrow (Wednesday) morning,” added Sunil. The coach was sceptical on the finishing ability of his forwards. “Our forwards could not find the back of the nets against Syria. So we are focusing more on improving on this aspect in remaining matches,” said the coach. Nepal will wrap up their campaign with a match against Saudi Arabia on Friday. The winners and runners-up each from seven groups will make it to the finals to be held next year.
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