KOTA KINABALU, May 21 — Malaysia and Nepal women’s national teams will set their base in Sabah to test their competitive skills as they gear up for their respective regional tournaments.

As the Malaysian team vie for a bronze medal in the 2017 SEA Games this August, the Nepal women’s team head coach Kumar Thapa said they were preparing for the biennial South Asian Football Federation (Saff) Women’s Championship next year.

"It (friendly match with Malaysia) is going to be very competitive, but we will try to play a fair game and respect each other. We also have a purpose in this friendly match as we take it as a preparation for the SAFF Women’s Championship in about 18 months’ time,” he told a press conference here today.

Apart from hoping for a win in both matches against Malaysia, scheduled tomorrow and May 24 here, Kumar also hoped their presence would win the hearts of the people in Sabah and promote women’s football.

Nepal women’s team manager Shivanee Thapa said the friendly match was in reciprocation of the Malaysian team’s visit to Kathmandu in December last year, where Nepal beat Malaysia 1-0 in a friendly.

Meanwhile, Malaysian women’s national head coach Mohd Asyraaf Fong Abdullah said the friendly against Nepal would be a good ‘warming up session’ before competing in the SEA Games in Kuala Lumpur.

"Our friendly with Nepal is important because their players are taller in physic and very agile. So, this will surely test our performance as we prepare for the SEA Games,” he said, adding that the team had nine new players.

Malaysian national team captain Mastura Majid was optimistic of their performance in the friendly, even though they had only three weeks of training.

The class A friendly match between Malaysia and Nepal women’s football teams will be held at the Likas Stadium at 8.15pm tomorrow and at Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) Stadium at 3.45pm on May 24.

Entrance is free. — Bernama