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DUSHANBE, Nov 22: In their first ever clash, Pakistan play Uzbekistan in the opening match of the AFC Youth football championship qualifying round at Republic Centre stadium on Wednesday.
Pakistan along with Uzbekistan and hosts Tajikistan are placed in Group ‘E’ of Central and South Asia qualifying rounds which end on Nov 27.
Interestingly, all the three teams of the round have never played each other at that level of Asian Youth championship.
The hard fact that both the Central Asian states are much superior rivals due to their international ranking, the pressure is shifted onto green shirts for producing encouraging results.
But the spirited Pakistan has refused to get under pressure rejecting the claim that their chances are bleak in the presence of two good teams.
“... We are fully determined to put up an impressive show no matter how good the opponents are,” said team’s captain Khalid Munir who is a midfielder on the eve of the match on Tuesday.
Pakistan in its previous 13 appearances had just once qualified for the final round and their best ever performance was way back in 2000 in Colombo where they beat India and hosts Sri Lanka to top the group but lost in the final championship at Tehran.
Team management whose main concern was cold weather ahead of the tournament is now slightly relieved as the sun is shining and the temperature is far away from breezing conditions.
“Now the conditions are suitable to us and we are hoping that our team will exhibit fine performance in the opening match,” said head coach Muhammad Saddique Sheikh and coach Muhammad Rasheed.
They said they had noticed some weakness in their forward line but hoped to overcome it by chalking up a strategy keeping in view the game plan of their opponents.
Uzbekistan’s English coach Colm Toal was cautious in predicting the outcome of the game.
“It will be a tough game for us as Pakistan team is also good and we have not played them before, we have to wait until both the sides play in the field in their first ever encounter,” he said.—APP
