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Nepal national under-23 football team recently participated in the prestigious U23 Bangabandhu Gold Cup held in Bangladesh and won it with great glory. Nepal defeated Bahrain U-23 team with 3-0 in the finals and won the first international title in 23 years.

Nepal’s first match in the group stage against Felda United FC was a goalless draw. In the second match, Bimal Gharti Magars’ only goal against Sri Lanka secured the second game. Nepal entered into the semi-finals with yet another draw match against the host Bangladesh. In the semi-final match against Maldives, Nepal showed a strong performance where Nawayug Shrestha scored a hat-trick and Bishal Rai scored one. The final was played against Bahrain and Nepal became victorious with a score of 3-0. Bimal Gharti Magar, Bishal Rai and Nawayug Shrestha were the heroes of the match. Nawayug Shrestha was awarded the Most Valuable Player of the tournament and Bimal Gharti Magar was awarded the Man of the Match.

The journey for Nepal wasn’t very easy in the tournament. Nepalese had lost their faith on football following the latest match fixing incident, but with the endless effort, dedication and hard work of the aspiring youths of the team proved everyone wrong. They not only went to participate in a foreign event but also won it and brought back the glory that we all waited for a very long time.

This is a great achievement for Nepali football and the boys really deserve all the love and respect. They made us believe that Nepali Football can be uplifted and taken to greater heights too. We hope that Nepali Football may rise to greater heights every single day. Long way to go ahead! Cheers to the heroes!