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Published 18 Jul, 2009 12:00am

Pakistan face Thailand in friendly match today

LAHORE, July 17 The 6th Pakistan-Thailand clash in international soccer will be held in Bangkok on Saturday as Pakistan are on a friendly tour of that country.

Saturday's tie will be third match of Pakistan on the tour. Earlier, Pakistan had displayed a poor performance losing both its warm-up matches against Thailand U-23 2-0 and U-19 4-0.

Thailand ranked 117th in the international FIFA ranking against 167th of Pakistan have won four matches against Pakistan, out of a total of five played.

Thailand have the honor of winning Tiger Cup thrice while their U-23 team

won titles of South East Asian Games 13 times.

The SEA Games are an age-restricted (U-23) tournament (unlike the Tiger Cup). On the other hand Pakistan have never won the SAFF Championship while their U-23 team has clinched the SAG title for a record four times.

It is interesting to note that Pakistan has yet to score against Thailand since the last 40 years after thrashing them 7-0 on August 9, 1960 during 4th Merdeka Cup at Kuala Lumpur. Since then it has been a one way traffic with Thailand winning four internationals in line.

Thailand earned their first ever win over Akbar Raisani-led Pakistan after close-fight 1-0 win at their own 14th King Cup on November 11, 1981. It was followed by 6-0 win during Seoul's Asian Games on September 29, 1986.

The two matches between two in World cup qualifiers were also won by

the Thais who won the first leg 3-0 at Lebanon on May 15, 2001, and completed double with 6-0 win in Thailand 13 days later.

The soccer enthusiasts of both nations are following the one-off Test with keenness as a match will be included in mathematical method of monthly FIFA World Ranking.

The match will bring two European coaches in front of each other too when Pakistani coach George Kottan (Austria) will face tough coaching skills of another European, Liverpool-born Thai coach Peter Reid.

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