Coach Vincenzo Alberto Annese will be aiming to turn around the fortunes of Nepal when they play a double header against Bahrain in the second round of the 2026 FIFA World Cup and 2027 AFC Asian Cup Qualifiers at the Bahrain National Stadium on Friday.

The stakes are high but the Gorkhalis will be sailing into uncharted and hostile waters.

This will be the first official meeting between the two sides in an international competition, although Nepal played their Under-21 side in the 2016 Bangabandhu Cup final which Nepal won 3-0.

Nepal started their second round with a 4-0 defeat away at the United Arab Emirates and a 2-0 loss at home to Yemen. The back-to-back defeats have left underperforming Nepal at the bottom of the four-team Group H, endangering their hopes of progressing into the third round of the World Cup qualifiers and a direct entry at the Asian Cup. If Nepal lose both their legs—the rematch is scheduled for March 27—their run in the World Cup qualifiers will end.

The group winners and runners-up from each group will advance into the third round of World Cup qualifier, while the remaining teams will drop into the third round of the Asian Cup Qualification.

Bahrain, ranked 82nd in the FIFA world rankings, will be overwhelmingly favourites against 175th ranked Nepal, whose performance at the international area has remained far from encouraging. Nepal warmed up for their qualifiers matches with a 5-1 loss against Malaysia. Nepal’s only goal in the practice match came from Sameer Tamang, who is one of the six fresh bloods in the national team.

Nepal will also not have home support. Nepal were scheduled to host Bahrain at the Dasharath Stadium in their first leg fixture but the match was moved away from the country after an inspection team of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) deemed the ground sub-standard.

The Gorkhalis will also be without star players Ayush Ghalan, Arik Bista, Rohit Chand, Suraj Jeu Thakuri and Aashish Chaudhary, who have surprisingly been left out of the squad for the Bahrain tour.

To fill up the void, Annese—who is still experimenting the players after a year at helm—has also called up inexperienced midfielders Rohan Karki and Bishal Basnet, and defenders Abhishek Limbu and Ajay Chaudhary, Saubhagya Rai for the first time, while Bharat Khawas has also returned to the national fold.

Bahrain started their campaign with 2-0 win over Yemen but were beaten by the UAE by the same scoreline in their next match. They will be looking to recover by capitalizing on the vulnerability of the failing opponents.

The Pearl Divers will be playing their first match since losing 3-1 to Japan in the AFC Asian Cup Round of 16—their knockout stage for a second edition in a row.

With three points from their opening two games, Bahrain sit in the second spot, three behind leaders UAE and are still in contention for the automatic qualification for the Asian Cup.

Yemen are third in Group H with three points.