Nepal national women’s team will face another reality check when they host Vietnam in the second leg of the first round of the AFC Women’s Olympic Qualifier for Paris 2024 at the Dasharath Stadium on Saturday.

Coach Ananta Raj Thapa’s team are hurt and badly wounded after a 5-1 rout by the powerhouse Vietnam in the first leg on Wednesday and will be low on confidence in front of the home crowd.

On the contrary, Vietnam—who have qualified for their maiden FIFA World Cup—will look for another mauling away from home as they look to progress into the second round and join North Korea, Japan, Australia, China and South Korea, who received byes.

Nepal will need to win the second leg by at least a four-goal margin to advance into the second round, but it will be a tough task given their leaky defence that conceded five easy goals.

Thapa will need to quickly address the weak defence that is missing, after key defender Gita Rana could not take the field due to injury.

In the absence of Rana, Samikshya Ghimire and Amirta Jaisi took the central role but that seemed not to have worked.

Defender Srijana Chemjong is waiting for a debut and Thapa could assign to her the test of her life.

The Group ‘C’ of the Qualifiers was originally a four-team event, but was reduced to a two-team affair following the withdrawal of Palestine and Afghanistan.

Only the winners of the group will qualify for the next rounds.