Hosts Nepal will play against a formidable Vietnam as the two sides are set to lock horns in the first leg match of the Asian Qualifiers Round 1 of Women’s Olympic Football Tournament 2024 at the Dasharath Stadium on Wednesday.

The Group ‘C’ of the Qualifiers – originally a four-team event was reduced to a two-team affair following the withdrawal of Palestine and Afghanistan. Only the group toppers after the two-leg match — the second game scheduled for Saturday – will qualify for the next rounds.

The match will kick start at 18:00 hours Nepal time, under the floodlights.

Billed as a winner takes all contest, both sides have set their ultimate goal of a second round entry. However, considering the team’s recent run, Vietnam are comparatively a better side than the home team.

Vietnam women’s team have secured a place for the finals of 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup for the first time. They are placed 33rd in FIFA Women’s World Ranking while Nepal are in 100th position.

Despite the big disparity, the home team has set the ultimate goal of securing a place in the second round. “We will be playing against Vietnam for the first and though they are ahead of us in the rankings, it doesn’t matter because we have played for a draw against a superior side like Myanmar in the Olympic qualifiers in the past,” Nepal’s captain Anjila Tumbapo Subba, who will take the charge of post, said at the pre-match conference on Tuesday.

“Our target will be to win inside the ground because no one wants to lose. And every outcome is possible, if we fight until the last moment,” added Tumbapo Subba.

Subba’s counterpart Huynh Nhu of Vietnam said that her side’s goal was to win and progress to the next stage. “Nepal is making rapid improvement in women’s football and it is not easy to play against them. But we have arrived Nepal with a clear ambition of victory and will try our best to achieve that goal,” said the forward who plays for Portugal women’s top division side, Vilaverdense.

Adding that they were well aware of the disparity in their FIFA rankings Nhu said: “We respect Nepal and we have seen them play against India (recently) and know how strong they are. We need to play with full concentration against them.”

Nepal’s coach Ananta Raj Thapa, appointed as the team’s coach in January, said that they are expecting a happy outcome against their strong opponents. “Though they will be playing in the 2023 World Cup and are better than us in rankings, we also have good players. We have been preparing for the last month and we are expecting a happy outcome,” said Thapa who led the team to 2-2 and 0-0 draw away to India at an international friendly, in February.

“If we want to improve the level of Nepali football, we must play against better quality and higher ranked teams than us. This is the time to prove that we are a tough team. It doesn't matter who pulled out from the event. We need to focus on the challenges ahead of us and deliver good results,” said Thapa, adding that the India friendly was helpful in creating a good environment and self-belief within the team.

“The India friendlies were very much helpful for understanding the individual qualities of players. Vietnam would be the most competitive team in the group, despite two withdrawals,” Thapa said, adding that they were also closely monitoring the opponent’s performance and would keep eye on their key players.

“We need to understand their strategy, strength as well as weaknesses and play accordingly,” said Thapa, adding that they would start offensively and make strategy as per the opponent’s performance.

Vietnam coach Mai Duc Chung said that he was impressed with Nepal’s performance. “Though we have not played against Nepal in the past, we have watched Nepal’s recent matches against India. They played really well and I am really impressed with their performance. Nepal’s no 9 (Sabitra Bhandari) was very good,” said Chung. “We have not considered Nepal as weak opponents and they have been performing well over the past few years. We are aware of them.”

Nepal’s best run in the Asian Qualifier for Olympic dates back to 2018, when they finished third in the Group ‘C’ in Yangon, and progressed into the second round.

The two teams will clash again on April 8 on the same ground.