KATHMANDU: Nepal has lost its last match in the second round of qualifier matches for FIFA World Cup 2022 and AFC Asian Cup 2023.
In the Group B match played in Kuwait City on Friday, Nepal, which was limited to 10 players, was defeated by Australia 3-0.
Australia took the lead in the sixth minute of the game. Matthew Leckie scored the first goal. Fran Karacic scored the second goal in the 38th minute, and Martin Boyle scored third goal in the 57th minute.
In the 45th minute of the match, Nepal was limited to 10 players. Nepal’s Rohit Chand was forced to leave the field after receiving a straight red card. He fouled Martin Boyle of Australia.
Captain and goalkeeper Kiran Kumar Limbu, who played with 10 players in the second half, had an excellent performance for Nepal. He had thwarted half a dozen Australian strikes.
Nepal, which has been eliminated from the World Cup qualifiers, has lost the possibility of reaching the third round of the Asian Cup as well. Now Nepal will have to compete to reach the third round from the playoffs.
Top-ranked Australia, with 21 points, have won all seven of their matches so far. Second-placed Jordan has 13 points and third-placed Kuwait has 10 points.
Nepal finished fourth in the table with six points. Nepal defeated Chinese Taipei 2-0 in both legs and lost the other three matches.
Fifth-ranked Chinese Taipei could not add points as they lost all their matches.
Nepal and Australia competed in the first leg of this selection in 2019. Australia had defeated Nepal 5-0 in that match played at Canberra.
