Nepal vs Maldives preview, prediction, line-ups and more

Nepal will lock horns with defending champions Maldives in the SAFF Championship at the National Football Stadium, Male. This will be the first match of the 2021 edition of the tournament which will be competed by 5 teams from the South-Asia region.

Nepal will be entering the Championship in dampened spirits after Oman defeated them 2-7 in an international friendly earlier this week.

However, the two matches against India played in the first week of September would have given them a lot of confidence. They drew their first game while falling to a narrow defeat at the hands of the Indians.

They managed to keep Igor Stimac's boys under check and troubled them on many occasions. With four defeats and a draw in the last 5 matches, Nepal will look to improve their form in the SAFF Championship.

Maldives have not played any international football since June this year. They faced heavy defeats against Syria and China but scrapped a point against the Philippines. They are ranked 158 in the world currently, 10 spots above their opponents.

Although they last played an international match almost 4 months back, most of the players were involved in the AFC Cup 2021 through Club Eagles and Maziya. They will look to trouble the Nepalese team and get off to a good start in the Championship.

Maldives defeated India to win the SAFF Championship in 2018

Nepal vs Maldives SAFF Championship 2021 Predicted Line-ups

Nepal: Kiran Limbu (GK), Gautam Shrestha, Ananta Tamang, Pujan Uperkoti, Suman Aryal; Santosh Tamang, Tej Tamang, Suman Lama; Anjan Bista, Nawayug Shrestha, Manish Dangi

Maldives: Mohamed Faisal (GK), Ali Samooh, Ahmed Nooman, Haisham Hassan, Akram Abdul Ghanee, Mohamed Umair, Ibrahim Mahudhee Hussain, Hussain Nihan, Hamzath Mohamed, Ibrahim Aisham, Ali Haisam

Nepal vs Maldives SAFF Championship 2021 where to watch

No official confirmation has been received for the telecast of SAFF Championship 2021 in India. T-Sports' YouTube channel will be streaming all the matches of the tournament.

Nepal vs Maldives SAFF Championship 2021 prediction

While the Maldives is ranked above Nepal in the FIFA Rankings, Nepal have played three international friendlies in the last month. With a long training camp, Nepal are looking better prepared heading into the tournament. They should ideally be defeating the Maldives, who last played an international match four months back.

Prediction: Nepal 2-1 Maldives