DUSHANBE, Nov 19: Pakistan Youth football team arrived on Saturday in Tajik capital Dushanbe from Kabul to take part in the AFC Youth football championship qualifying round starting here from Nov 23.

President Tajikistan Football Federation Kosimov Suhros, Secretary Davlatov Sherali and Shavkat Akhmedov, head of the competition committee received the 18-member team, who had a two-day stopover in Afghanistan’s capital on their way to Dushanbe.

Pakistan is placed in Group ‘E’ of the Central and South Asian round of qualifying rounds along with Uzbekistan and hosts Tajikistan. They will launch their campaign from Nov 23 by playing Uzbekistan and then the home side on Nov 25.

The qualifying rounds of the Youth championship are being played at several centres around the world among 41 countries and 16 of them will be qualifying for the main round to be played in India next year.

The green shirts had a training session in the afternoon and head coach Muhammad Saddique Sheikh and coach Muhammad Rasheed had them do physical training and drills.

Captain Khalid Munir said after the training session that it was good to be there a few days ahead of the tournament, as it would help the side to acclimatize themselves to the cold weather and playing conditions.

“I firmly believe that my side will show extraordinary performance against the two best sides of the Central Asia and I am confident we have bright chances of scoring victories,” he added.—APP