Kathmandu, Oct. 25: When asked about the team’s plan for the first group stage match of the AFC U-17 Asian Cup Qualifiers against Japan, Nepal’s head coach Sanoj Shrestha, before leaving for Qatar, accepted that holding back the four-time U-17 Asian Cup winners would be an arduous task. And, Wednesday night, the young Samurai Blue proved to be such an opponent against which the Nepali youngsters struggled at Hamad bin Khalifa Stadium in Doha.

Japan scored nine goals past Nepal while the squad could only reply with two. “We will be in a defensive play against Japan as they are better than us. However, we want to make a statement in the tournament,” said Shrestha during the farewell to the U-17 side by the All Nepal Football Association on October 20.

But when Nepal opened the goal tally of the match on Wednesday, it was a celebratory moment with the fans expecting an unprecedented end to the encounter against the best team in the tournament.

Sabin Kumar was the opening goal scorer of the match in the 12th minute when he flicked a pass from the right flank. Meanwhile, after the first goal, Japan intensified their gameplay and began attacking Nepal’s goalpost in a continuous succession. 

Japan equalised with a goal from Daichi Tani in the 17th minute. And before the first half ended, Daichi had completed his hat-trick. He scored the next two goals in the 38th and 43rd minutes. Before the first half, Japan was leading with a score of 5-1 with two goals by Hiroto Asada in the 19th and 45+2 minutes.

Despite leading by four goals, Japan kept on their momentum in the second half as well; and they scored four more in the last 45 minutes. Asada also went on to complete his hat-trick in the second half with his third and team’s seventh in the 64th minute. It was Tani who made it 6-1 with his fourth individual goal in the 61st.  

Mibuki Kasai and Kaji Chonan scored the final two goals for Japan in the 73rd and 77th minutes respectively. Just when the game was about to conclude with a score of 9-1, Bigyan Khadka scored another consolation goal for Nepal with two minutes left on the clock.

Nepal now faces host Qatar on October 25 and the final group opponent Mongolia on October 27.