Football: Mujahid hands Pakistan second successive win

PAF striker scores winner in 1-0 win over Nepal.

KARACHI:

Pakistan coach Zavisa Milosavljevic declared that the national football team is in good form ahead of the AFC Challenge Cup Qualifiers in Kyrgyzstan next month as the team finished their Nepal tour with a clean sweep, defeating the hosts 1-0 in their second match in Kathmandu on their practice tour.

The team also won its first match against Nepal 1-0 on February 6.

In the last match with Nepal before flying off to Maldives tomorrow, Mohammad Mujahid scored the winner in the 65th minute, boosting the team’s morale.

According to Milosavljevic, who is in the second year of his contract with the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF), the team is not only physically fit but very strong mentally as well, especially after the back-to-back wins.

“We can say that Pakistan has become a very competitive side, it’s becoming a quality team,” Milosavljevic told The Express tribune. “We are scoring now, and in this match Muhammad Adil orchestrated the goal, gave a pass to Hassan Bashir, who further gave a very useful pass to Mujahid and we scored a beautiful goal, a very testing goal too. We are improving, the team is scoring now and that is a good sign.”

Meanwhile, talking about the team combination he said the players are in sync with each other and they are playing as one unit. He emphasised that foreign-based players should not be considered as outsiders as they are all Pakistani players for him.



“Any player in the team is a Pakistani player for me, there is no division. They are all playing for the country; we don’t consider them foreigners at all.”

Similarly, looking forward to the second leg of the practice tour in Maldives, Milosavljevic predicted tough matches on February 12 and 16 against the hosts.

“It’s going to be tough, we take each match very seriously and we work on it. Although the team is playing well, it still needs more practice matches with other countries that will help the players build a temperament for the international competition.”

Meanwhile, the victory in Nepal also helped cast away doubts about Milosavljevic’s coaching as the critics back home felt that the team’s dismal Fifa ranking at 189 is pushing it away from the international circuit.

“I’m glad we won,” said former captain Essa Khan. “I previously expressed my doubts about the Serbian coach and the way team was not scoring, but it’s good to see them win. Milosavljevic must have upped tactics for this tour.”

Published in The Express Tribune, February 10^th, 2013.