When Guglielmo Arena, Nepal’s men’s team head coach, arrived at New Laos National Stadium on Tuesday, he was in high spirits. “We will try to play a very good football,” Arena said, ahead of his first outing with the Nepali national team. The UEFA pro-coach had joined the Gorkhalis on March 12, with a mandate to uplift the beleaguered team’s performance. Nepal were taking on Laos for the last match of the AFC Asian Cup Qualification-Third Round against Laos on Tuesday. “We will try to improve ourselves,” Arena said.

But the game didn’t go into Nepal’s favour. It could be said that Nepal couldn’t perform to their abilities, but it would be hard to argue that they played “a very good football”. They especially fumbled with finishing and lost the match 0-1.

It was Nepal’s consecutive defeat to Laos. Previously, they had lost to the southeast Asian side on June 10 last year, in the first leg of the Asian Cup Qualification-Third Round. Nepal have won four and drawn twice against Laos since their first encounter in May 2016. Their back-to-back losses mirror the sorry state of Nepali football of late.

Arena fails on first test

Arena has been stressing that he was approaching the match against Laos differently. For Arena, Laos are a familiar side; he coached them for four months in 2023.

“We are out of the Asian Cup Qualification, so I will be testing something against Laos,” Arena said in his first press conference on March 13. He said the same thing before entering the stadium on Tuesday.

Arena’s experimentation with the Nepali team was apparent—from the 23-member squad Arena announced to the way he positioned the players against Laos.

Arena had done away with the likes of Anjan Bista and Arik Bista in the squad and inducted five new faces to the team—Yogesh Dhimal, Roman Bhujel, Pemba Dorje Lama, Milan Rai and Yubraj Khadka.

“We try to bring some new players who have the desire to take Nepali football to the next step,” Arena said on Tuesday. “Today is our first step…we hope to make a very good step today.”

Khadka, a striker, started for Nepal and made his international debut.

Nepal are ranked 175th in FIFA Men’s Ranking; Laos are 191st. Nepal were 15 places above Laos when they lost in June last year.

A different formation

Arena had also applied a different formation against Laos.

Often, Nepal’s men’s team play with four defenders. But against Laos, Arena had put his trust in three: Ananta Tamang, Rohit Chand and Suman Shrestha.

Sanish Shrestha was mostly busy playing as a right midfielder, but was also tracking back as a right back.

Similarly, with Manish Dangi and Ayush Ghalan starting as two attacking midfielders to support striker Khadka, Dipesh Gurung, Aditya Shakya and Mani Kumar Lama supported Sanish in the central midfield.

Arena could be seen instructing the players to rotate their positions under different circumstances. He also used up all five substitutes in the second half, which allowed Pemba Dorje Lama to make his international debut.

Mani Kumar Lama and Dipesh Gurung were replaced by Rohan Karki and Pemba Dorje Lama at the start of the second half. Ghalan, Khadka and Sanish were replaced by Kritish Ratna Chhunju, Sumit Shrestha and Abhishek Limbu as the match went on.

Being subbed in with the start of the second half, Lama also made his debut for the national team.

Chances missed

The match suggested that Arena likes attacking football. Throughout the match, Arena’s players were on the offensive, even when they were trailing by a goal.

Nepal had the chance to score first in the match. A freekick in the very first minute saw Lama find Tamang inside the box. But Tamang headed the ball right into goalie Keo Oudone’s hands.

Despite a first-minute pressure, however, Laos did not hesitate. Laos responded by troubling Nepal’s wall Kiran Chemjong within a few minutes.

Until the first half, both teams had their moments.

The biggest chance for Laos in the first half came in the 35th minute when Chony Wenpaserth’s shot from 18 yards away beat Chemjong, only to get rebounded from the crossbar. Wenpaserth was the one who ran and replied to the rebound with a header, but it was saved by Chemjong.

Once the second half began, it took only three minutes for Laos to get into the lead. Confusion inside the box saw Suman fail to clear the ball and lose possession. Laos captain Bounphachan Bounkong, who had missed at least two chances to score, chipped the ball over Chemjong, capitalising on a through ball, and gave Laos the lead that would hold on until the end.

Nepal had plenty of chances thereon but failed to convert any, meaning they finished at the bottom of Group F in the Third Round with five losses and one win.

Nepal’s only win, which was over Malaysia, was a result of the AFC turning the results after finding Malaysia fielding several ineligible players.

The result also meant Arena’s Nepal job got off to a rocky start. Arena is now expected to focus on preparing a team for SAFF Men’s Championship, which is expected in September-October this year.