Football: The disappointment continued for the Bhutanese football squad as the team lost 3-1 at a friendly Sunday with Al-Shabab, an A-division club in Kuwait.

The match began with the national team taking control of the game and putting pressure on the homeboys. The pressure paid off in the 20th minute of the first half when Winger Biren Basnet scored Bhutan’s only goal of the match.

Several errors from the Bhutanese team in the second half proved costly. In the 65th minute Al-Shabab equalised with a penalty.  Two more goals from the home team sealed Al-Shabab’s victory.

Al-Shabab’s vice manager, Ali Kankouni, said that it was a good experience for his team to play against Bhutan. “We had never played against any team from the Asian before. The boys got some talent there and they are really fast,” he said. “With more practice this team has a really good chance in the near future. They need to play more exposure games for experience.”

Coach Norio Tsukitate said: “The performance today was good but the result is the same. We lost again.” He urged his boys to reflect what went wrong in the second half. With just a few days remaining for the team to face Qatar, Norio said that victory will be difficult if the boys continue to play like they have been playing so far.

“We would have won this game. Now you all need to know what went wrong in the game and act accordingly to avoid similar outcomes in the future games,” Nario told his squad.

The Bhutanese national squad will leave for Qatar tomorrow for the third game of the second round of the World Cup Qualifiers on September 3 at the Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium in Doha.

The match will kickoff at 10pm (BST).

Younten Tshedup, Kuwait

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