Goalkeeper Alan Neupane and midfielder Rajendra Rawal were the two changes as Nepal coach Gyotoku Koji on Wednesday announced a 23-member final squad for their AFC Asian Cup Qualifiers away match against Tajikistan scheduled for October 10. 

While Neupane replaced Bishal Shrestha, Rawal took the place of Suman Lama from the squad that was announced for the home match against the Tajiks on September 5. The two goalkeepers have been in close contest for third choice player to guard the post and are often in and out of the team. Bikesh Kuthu is the second choice custodian. 

Nepal Armed Police Force (AFP) midfielder Rawal retained his place in the side after Lama suffered a ligament injury, which is expected to be a minor one. 

“Suman had been training in the camp but went on to sustain a minor ligament injury. But we didn’t want to take any risk with him,” said coach Raju Kaji Shakya, who has been assisting Japanese Koji. Ujjwal Manandhar is the goalkeeping coach of the team. 

Nepal have earned only one point from last three matches in Group ‘F’ of the tournament which is played in the home and away format. 

Nepal had lost 4-1 away to Philippines on March 28 before opening account in the standings with a goalless draw against Yemen at the Halchowk grounds on June 13. Tajikistan had beaten Nepal 2-1 at the Anfa Complex leaving them under pressure to deliver in their rest of the matches to have any realistic chance of remaining in contention for the 2018 AFC Asian Cup finals. 

Philippines lead the pool with seven points, followed by Yemen (five points) and Tajikistan (three points)—whose only victory against Nepal—having finished the first leg of the tournament. Winless Nepal are at the bottom of the table. The 24-team Qualifiers—divided into six pools—offer 12 berths for the finals to be played in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) next year. The 12 teams will join defending champions Australia, China, Iraq, Iran, Japan, South Korea, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Thailand, Uzbekistan and hosts UAE in the finals. 

Desperate for a victory that has eluded them so far, Nepal are likely to experiment with a new formation with their conventional 4-4-2 strategy hardly reaping any fruit in the last three matches. “We are likely to go with 3-5-2 or 3-4-3 formation. The team is currently training under that format and the head coach is yet to come up with a final decision,” informed Shakya. 

Nepal resumed their training from Monday (October 2) after Dashain festival break. First choice goalkeeper Kiran Kumar Limbu and influential midfielder Rohit Chand, who play professional football in Maldives and Indonesia respectively, have already joined the closed-camp. 

Stating about his team’s ambitions against Tajikistan, Shakya said: “We will try to make improvements and beat the opponents. Though they are comparatively strong, we will perform better than our last encounter. Nothing is impossible in football.”

Squad

Goalkeeper: Kiran Kumar Limbu,  Bikesh Kuthu, Alan Neupane

Defender: Biraj Maharjan, Devendra Tamang, Ananta Tamang, Dinesh Rajbanshi, Jitendra Karki, Aditya Chaudhary, Kamal Shrestha

Midfielder: Sunil Bal, Heman Gurung, Rohit Chand, Anjan Bista, Bikram Lama, Bishal Rai, Hemant Thapa Magar, Sujal Shrestha, Rajendra Rawal, 

Forward: Bimal Gharti Magar, Gerorge Prince Karki, Nawayug Shrestha, Bharat Khawas