![]() ![]() “Honda’s impact can be seen on the Cambodian team and they play with a lot of verve so that will be a challenge for us,” opined Shehzad. They will, however, be without the man who masterminded their two-legged victory over Pakistan four years ago.įormer Japan international attacker Keisuke Honda has left as the team’s coach but during his spell in charge, he has transformed the side from also-rans in the Southeast Asian region to a fluid, attacking team. ”Ĭambodia, on the other hand, lost their last international friendly 1-0 to Bangladesh in June and finished third in their group in December’s Asean Football Federation Championship, winning two and losing two matches. “We will try to play a few matches in the September window to fine-tune the team and most of our senior team players will also be playing in the qualifiers for the AFC Under-23 championship where we will be up against Japan, Bahrain and Palestine. “Last time out, we couldn’t select from a full squad and there were problems but this time, things are better. “The off-pitch matters are better this time,” Pakistan head coach Shehzad Anwar, who was the PFF technical director four years ago, told Dawn on Thursday. This time, however, the FIFA-appointed PFF Normalisation Committee is in-charge. Those matches were played under a cloud with two separate PFF setups in place - one accepted by FIFA and the AFC and the other by the local court. They fell 2-0 away in Phnom Penh before going down 2-1 in the home leg, which was played in Qatar. Those matches were the first since Pakistan, who are 201st in the FIFA rankings and have suffered plenty of inaction due to the crisis in the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF), lost in both legs to Cambodia in June 2019. The winners of the tie will move into Group ‘G’ featuring Asian giants Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Tajikistan but getting into the second round once looks like a tough ask for the national team which has lost all eight matches it has played in the last year since FIFA lifted a 15-month suspension on Pakistan. Thursday’s draw ceremony at the Asian Football Confederation headquarters in Kuala Lumpur also saw Pakistan discover their second-round group stage opponents should they overcome Cambodia. Just over four years on from losing to Cambodia on the road to last year’s World Cup in Qatar, Pakistan will once again cross paths with Cambodia in the home-and-away first round of qualifying for the 2026 tournament in North America - which features 48 teams for the first time - and the 2027 AFC Asian Cup. Pakistan avoided a potentially fiery clash against Afghanistan but will once again face Cambodia in their quest for a first-ever victory in FIFA World Cup qualifying.
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