KARACHI: Pakistan football team won their first Asian Games match after nearly 44 years as they defeated Nepal 2-1 in their last group D match in Bekasi, Indonesia on Sunday.
The team made things impossible for themselves in an already dreary record at first when they scored an own-goal in the 12th minute, a mistake by Shahbaz Younus.
But they were dominant in the second half as Muhammad Bial scored in the 54th minute and then captain Saddam Hussain sealed the win courtesy a penalty in the 72nd minute.
The win has brought hope for the country to progress to the knock-out round, however, out of the other nations Pakistan has the worst goal-difference of -6, as they were thrashed 3-0 by Vietnam 0 in their first match and then lost 4-0 against Japan on Thursday.
Pakistan has only ever won three matches at the Asain Games football event now, the other two being in 1954 and 1974.
The rules of fielding the teams at the Asian Games had changed in 2002, as the participating nations can field only three seniors players now, and the rest of the squad should be U23.
