Nepal defeated by Iraq in friendly match

Bikram Giri: RSS

Kathmandu: Nepal lost to Iraq by 2-6 in a friendly match held at the Alfaya sports ground in Basra of Iraq last night.

Hosts Iraq opened the scoring, with the first goal in the 7th minute of the match where Captain Ala Abdul Jahar Khasin scored through a free-kick. Soon after, Nepal leveled the score in the 8th minute with an own-goal from Ahmed Ibrahim.

In a counter-attack Nepal took the lead in the 30th minute, thanks a goal from Manish Dangi. Playing his debut match for the national team, Dangi gave Nepal a 2-1 lead in the 30th minute.
However, things then turned worse for the visitors, as Nepal conceded three more goals in the first half itself. Mohammad Abdul Jara Obed made it 2-2 in the 35th minute. Ayaman Hussein scored a brace in the 40th minute and injury time of first half to make it 4-2 at half time.

The pressure on Nepal continued in the second half, with Mohanad Ali Alsamari making it 5-2 in the 67th minute and Sajjad Jasim scoring in the 75th minute to make it 6-2 for the hosts. The scored remained the same till the end.

This was the first time Nepal was meeting Iraq after two decades. The match was played before an empty stadium due to the Corona Virus pandemic.

According to latest FIFA rankings, Iraq is in the 68th position while Nepal stands at 171st position.
According to All Nepal Football Association, the national team will now fly to Kuwait to play the FIFA world cup qualifying games. Nepal has been grouped together with Chinese Taipei, Jordan and Australia. So far, Nepal has registered one win and suffered four losses in the qualifying games.