KATHMANDU, June 7: Striker Abhishek Rijal scored in his full debut as Nepal national football team held Chinese Taipei to a 1-1 draw in Taiwan in Nepal’s second friendly match in four days on Thursday.
Nepal, who is in the 161st position, was successful to draw with Chinese Taipei, 125th, after an embarrassing 2-0 loss at the hands of Malaysia played in Kuala Lumpur on June 2.
Wu Chang Ching gave Taipei the lead in the 38th minute creating pressure on Nepal’s head coach Johan Kalin, who has not been able to win a single game for Nepal in his leadership since January. Nepal played a draw and lost one against Kuwait before losing to Malaysia.
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On Thursday, Rijal pulled the game back on track with an equalizer in the 69th minute. He converted a Santosh Tamang free-kick.
Sweden-born Kalin experimented with the side as captain Biraj Maharjan was dropped for Ajit Bhandari, while Suman Aryal started in left back in the place of Ranjit Dhimal.
Goalkeeper Kiran Chemjong captained the side with Nawayug Shrestha on the bench following poor performance against Malaysia.
Kalin made slight changes in his tactics fielding Rijal as a lone forward in place of his two-man forward strategy which did not let Nepal take control of the possession with sluggish performance in the middle of the park and few touches from forwards Shrestha and Bimal Rana against Malaysia on Sunday.
Rijal had made his debut for Nepal against Malaysia coming on in the 65th minute.
These two matches are seen as the preparations for the second round of the 2022 World Cup Qualifiers which Nepal will begin from September.
Nepal was rewarded a chance to play in the second round of the qualifiers for the first time after being in the 34th place in the Asian FIFA rankings.
Nepal played a goalless draw against Kuwait in Kalin’s first match in charge, while it lost 1-0 in the second against the same team. Nepal lost 2-0 to Malaysia in the third.
