Dhaka, January 21: Nepal faces Bahrain in the final of the Bangabandhu Gold Cup at the Bangabandhu National Stadium at 5:00 pm on Friday.

Prime minister Sheikh Hasina will distribute the prizes as the chief guest. Channel 9 will telecast the match live.

In a pre-final presser at the BFF House on Thursday Bahraini assistant coach D. Nasr said his team is ready to win the trophy. “We are close to winning the trophy, we came here with a young team focusing upon building the team for the future, a title is the greatest motivator, we will take the field for the trophy. We expect a tough match as Nepal is tough opponent but we are ready for the challenge” said Nasr.

His counterpart Bal Gopal Maharjan however arrived confident about closing the 23 year trophy drought. Nepal;s last international title was won in Dhaka back in 1993, it was the gold medal of SAF Games football. “We want to present Nepal a football trophy, we are determined to win it, we are not over confident and I have told my boys not be overwhelmed by the occasion. We also want to prove the 4-1 win over Maldives was not a fluke, it was the result of hard teamwork” said Bal Gopal.

The champions take way a purse of US Dollars 50000.00 while the runners-up takes 25000.00