As Nepal embarks on their joint 2020 World Cup and 2023 Asian Cup Qualifiers journey with a clash against hosts Kuwait on Thursday, Nepal head coach Johan Kalin will seek improvement from his side rather than gunning for victory.

Nepal are drawn in Group ‘B’ of the Qualifiers along with Kuwait, Jordan, Taiwan and Australia. Nepal will visit Taiwan for their second match on September 10 in the round-robin league to be played under home-and-away format. The Swede coach, who considers his side heavy underdogs in the group, is however determined to put in best performance considering the hard put in so far. “The big strength of the team is the fighting spirit of our boys,” said Kalin who took reins of the team on March 1.

The Swede is yet to taste victory having led Nepal in four international friendlies apart from another match against the Malaysian Super League champion Johor Darul Ta’zim FC. In five matches so far, his team have lost three and drawn two matches.

Nepal have managed to score just once during the period, the goal coming in a 1-1- draw against Taiwan. While they also played a two-match friendly against Kuwait, Nepal played 0-0 draw in the first match and lost 1-0 in another both in March. Nepal lost 2-0 to Malaysia on June 2 before losing to Malaysian outfits Johor Darul Ta’zim FC 1-0 on August 6.

Nepal are 166th in the FIFA rankings, 10 places behind Kuwait. Considering the rankings alone, the contest between Kuwait and Nepal appear to be close. But going by the performance in the last two matches, Kuwait set themselves apart from Nepal their dominant performance. Nepal were pinned down to their own half during their recent two friendlies.

Understandably, Kalin is expecting a tough match against Kuwait. “They are having really good preparation and fared really well in recently held West Asian Championship where they beat Saudi Arabia and drew Jordan. They also drew the likes of UAE, Egypt and Iraq in international friendlies. They also made trips to England for preparations. It all adds up to their strength,” he recently said.

Kalin is aware that Kuwait were closely monitoring his team’s recent progress. “Naturally every team takes to the field to win and we are not an exception. The reality, however, is that getting a result in our favour against Kuwait would be really tough. But we are hopeful of pulling some surprises in our campaign,” said the coach. “If we are on top of our games, we have the ability to trouble them. In any case, we are looking for performance, not the result. All I can promise is that we will do our best,” he said.