Nepal’s dream of qualifying for the AFC Asian Cup, scheduled to be held in Saudi Arabia next year, has come to an end.
In the fourth match of the third qualifying round held last night at Thong Nhat Stadium in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, Nepal suffered a 1–0 defeat against Vietnam. This marks Nepal’s fourth consecutive loss in the qualifying round.
The Group F match was initially planned to be held in Nepal; however, due to the unavailability of the Dasharath Stadium in Tripureshwar, the Nepali team had to travel to Vietnam for the game.
With this defeat, Nepal has been eliminated from the qualifiers with two matches still remaining. Earlier, Nepal had lost the away match against Vietnam 3–1, suffered a 2–0 loss to Malaysia, and a 2–1 defeat to Laos. Nepal still has home matches left against Malaysia and Laos.
In last night’s game, an own goal by Nepal’s Suman Shrestha in the fifth minute of the first half gave Vietnam the win. With four consecutive losses, Nepal remains at the bottom of the points table without a single point.
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