Bangladesh and Nepal played out an uneventful goalless draw in the first of two FIFA international friendly fixtures at the beleaguered Dashrath Stadium in Kathmandu on Saturday. source: dailystar

The venue, which recently has been suspended from hosting international competitive matches, witnessed a placid affair between two friendly neighbours of South Asia in front of a sparse crowd.

Both teams had come into this match on the back of defeats in their Asian Cup Qualifiers in June – Bangladesh losing 2-1 at home against Singapore and Nepal getting beaten by Laos by the same margin.

These two matches, the next one scheduled for September 9, are supposed to be preparation for the October Qualifiers – home-and-away matches against Hong Kong for Bangladesh. However, there was very little intensity and purpose among the teams to eke out a victory.

Bangladesh were playing against Nepal for the first time since their 3-1 defeat at the same venue in another friendly three years ago. It was a much-improved performance, at least from the defence of Javier Cabrera, but the effort lacked urgency to go for the broke.