Nepal national football team captain Kiran Kumar Limbu said that the addition of two guest teams and new players in the Nepal squad has made SAFF Championship challenging as the team prepare to fly to the Philippines for a friendly ahead of the sub-continental championship.

Nepal will fly to the Philippines on Monday and play against the national squad of the Southeast Asian Country on Thursday before leaving for India for the SAFF Championship scheduled from June 21 to July 4.

Nepal are drawn along with hosts India and Pakistan in group ‘A’ alongside Kuwait, who will be making a guest appearance in the tournament. The other group comprises Bhutan, Bangladesh, Maldives and Lebanon, the other side invited by South Asian Football Federation (SAFF).

“The level of the tournament will definitely go up due to the addition of two guest sides,” said Limbu, whose side finished runners up in the last edition losing to India 3-0 in the final in October, 2021. “We have bigger challenges this time and many new and inexperienced players.”

Apart from the addition of new players, Nepal will be flying to the Philippines after their shortest ever full training at the home turf. The team could train together only for a day due to the players’ duty with ‘A’ Division League that concluded on Saturday. “Many influential national players have migrated abroad and we had very short training periods, but we need to prepare within the limited time we have,” said Limbu, whose side are yet to win the SAFF trophy since the biennial tournament’s inception in 1993.

“The situation is tough for us and it is the whole country’s dream to see Nepal lifting the SAFF trophy. But I think it is getting even more challenging. If we work harder, we can reach the Asian Cup as well. My dream is still the same—SAFF Championship trophy. We are working our best to achieve it.”

Nepal’s Italian coach Vincenzo Alberto Annese, who will be taking charge of the team in the first official tournament leaving aside the Three Nations Cup that Nepal hosted, however, chose to focus on the Philippines friendly rather than SAFF Championship.

“For now, we are focused on the Philippines match. They are a strong team and we do not have the best record on their home turf,” said Annese, adding that he doesn't want to think about the possible results of the SAFF Championship.

Nepal and the Philippines have played five matches since 2011 and Nepal lost all four away matches before earning a 0-0 draw in the Asian Cup Qualifiers match at Satdobato in their last encounter in 2017.

“We should focus on ourselves and try to perform well. The Philippines have a new coach who was in Nepal a few months back with Laos team,” Annese said, referring to Michael Weiss who led Laos in Three Nations Cup at Dasharath Stadium in March.

“We have some new players in the squad who could make their debut and I am expecting good performance from the team,” said the Italian who lamented fewer training sessions. “We didn’t have so many meetings in the team. We have worked on the tactical part.”

Nepal will train for two days in Manila before vying in the friendly and fly to Bengaluru for SAFF Championship. Nepal are planning to have a three-day training session in India and a rest day. Defender Rohit Chand, currently playing professional football in Indonesia, will join the team in the Philippines.

“Most of the players have bigger experience than me. Even the captain has played five editions already,” said Annese, who was appointed as Nepal’s head coach in March. “These players will have to lift my confidence.”

Nepal will open their campaign against Kuwait in the curtain raiser of SAFF on June 21 before vying against hosts India on June 24. Nepal will play their final group game against Pakistan on June 27. The winners and runners up of each group will make it into semi-finals.