Nepal vs Lebanon: An awaited rematch

Kathmandu, Feb. 20: Nepal and Lebanon had an intense battle in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, in February last year when the two teams played for a spot in the final of the 8th WAFF Women’s Championship. 

Travelling far, the Nepali side played in front of a small but loud Nepali crowd at the King Abdullah Sports City Stadium. The squad led by head coach Rajendra Tamang defeated Lebanon 2-1 and entered the final where they lost to Jordan in penalties. 

The performance by the Nepali girls during their WAFF debut increased their popularity back home. 

The craze for Nepali women’s football was also proven during the 7th SAFF Women’s Championship in October 2024 as Dasharath Rangasala roared for the home side.

And the home of Nepali football, Dasharath Rangasala, is expected to get packed on Thursday (February 20) as Nepal faces Lebanon after a year in a much-anticipated rematch.

The rematch would have happened in July 2024 as Lebanon prepared to host Nepal, Jordan and Bangladesh in the Cedars International Women’s Friendly Tournament (July 10-16) at Rashid Karami Stadium in Tripoli. However, Nepal, despite almost a month-long preparation, had cancelled its participation alongside Bangladesh stating, “Due to recent developments in Lebanon and with the security of our team members and officials as our top priority, we have decided to withdraw…”

Nevertheless, the rematch is now set to take place after a wait of a year with almost the same set of players led by the same coaches.

Changes in squad

Compared to Lebanon’s 23-member squad that faced Nepal in WAFF last year, head coach Wael Gharzeddine has made 11 changes to his new 22-member squad travelling to South Asia.

Skipper Nathalie Matar’s old colleagues in the squad include Waed Raed, Syntia Salha, Layla Iskandar, Zahwa Arabi, Dima Alkasti, Julie Atallah, Ayana Rezkallah, Christy Maalouf, Marcelle Skaiki (GK) and Clara Khalil (GK).

The new faces are Anabelle Rose Ghabach, Mya Rose Callil, Lea El Hage Ali, Farah El Tayar, Paula Karam, Tatiana Kanaan, Karly Harfouch, Sherin Hasno, Nour Hammoudy (GK), Pilar Khoury and Tiana Jaber.

Six Lebanese players are playing in foreign leagues, and of them, four arrived with the squad: Layla, Nathalie, Syntia and Tiana.

“Two of our players will arrive tomorrow,” said Nathalie in the pre-tournament conference on February 16. 

Those two players are expected to be Lea Hachem and Mira Hoteit, two other foreign-league-playing Lebanese, and could be fielded against Nepal on Thursday.

Yet, the foreign players had less time to train with the whole squad making it a challenge for Lebanon. The same is the scenario with two Nepali forwards – Sabitra and Rekha – as they were lacking proper coordination in the first game against Kyrgyzstan on February 17.

Lebanon had five debutants in the first game of the International Women’s Championship against Myanmar on February 17 where they lost by a score of 3-1. Goalie Marcelle, who had yet to play for the national side, made her debut alongside Sherin, Anabelle, Mya and Tatiana.

Nevertheless, Nepal also has some changes to the squad compared to the one that faced Lebanon last year. 

Renuka Nagarkote, Man Maya Damai, Saru Limbu and Sushma Tamang are replacing Hira Bhujel, Sabina Chaudhary, Dipa Shahi and Amisha Karki. Hira and Dipa are out of injury while Amisha is busy training with the Nepali Army.

Previous encounter

On February 27 last year, Nepal defeated Lebanon by a score of 2-1. Lebanon led first thanks to an own goal by defender Puja Rana in the 38th minute.

However, the Nepali side made a comeback with Sabitra Bhandari equalising in the 76th and Preeti Rai giving the lead in 90+5 minutes.

Lebanon had reached the final of the WAFF Championship only once, in the seventh edition in 2022, while participating in five editions. 

Nevertheless, their chance for the final was denied in the eighth edition by debutant Nepal.

“I want to see how the Lebanese side has improved in a year since the 2-1 loss against Nepal last year,” said Lebanon’s coach Wael in the pre-tournament conference.

Talking to The Rising Nepal around two weeks ago, Nepal’s head coach Rajendra Tamang had also stressed the desire to see how his team would perform against Lebanon as the two teams were meeting after over 350 days.