QUETTA, June 11: Pakistan and India on Saturday prepared to kick off their first ever football series as sporting ties, frozen until two years ago, continue to expand. The South Asian neighbours and arch-rivals will play the first of three fixtures over the next week here on Sunday, with the visiting Indian side vowing to win friends as well as matches.

“We expect a tough competition in the series and it would be nice to win the opening match,” said Indian captain Shanmugam Venkatesh, the Indian player of 2004.

“More importantly we are here to win hearts just like our cricketers did last year,” he said.

The second match is at Peshawar on Thursday and the last is at Lahore next Saturday.

India lifted a bilateral sporting ban, imposed in 2000 because of political tensions, amid a thaw in relations in 2003.

Pakistan will be hoping for a repeat of last year’s South Asian Federation (SAF) Games final, when an under-23 side beat India 1-0 in Islamabad.

“We have 11 players from that win so I reminded them how we beat India. Despite India being superior in the rankings it won’t be easy for them,” said Pakistan captain Jaffar Khan.

India lead Pakistan 10-2 in their head-to-head record while six matches have been drawn.

Abhishek Yadav is India’s key man up front while Pakistan relies heavily on striker Mohammad Essa, the top scorer in the SAF Games 2004 with 10 goals.

Organisers hope for a full house on Sunday amid tight security in Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province which has been hit by a mini-tribal revolt.

Teams (from):

Pakistan:

Goalkeepers: Jaffar Khan (captain), Mohammad Shahzad, Mahmood Ahmed

Defenders: Tanveer Ahmed, Mohammad Shahid, Yasir Sabir, Naveed Akram, Ijaz Ahmed, Mohammad Imran, Mahmood Khan

Midfielders: Mohammad Zahid, Zahid Hameed, Atiqur Rehman, Attiq Ullah, Abdul Nasir

Strikers: Arif Mahmood, Imran Hussain, Farooq Shah, Mohammad Essa, Abdul Aziz, Shahid Ahmed, Shabbir Hussain

India

Goalkeepers: Satish Kumar, Sangram Mukherjee, Sandip Nandy

Defenders: Mahesh Gawli, Manju Shivananju, Sukumar Singh, Rahim Nabi, Habibur Rehman Mondal, Philip Gomes, Naduparambil Pappachan Pradeep

Midfielders: Shanmugam Venkatesh, Jatin Singh Bisht, Clifford Miranda, Bibiano Fernandes, Climax Lawrence, Jules Alberto Dias, Sukhwinder Singh

Strikers: Abhishek Yadav, Sunil Chetri, Abdul Hakkim, Surajit Bose.—AFP