Nepal’s National Football team has started training for the upcoming AFC Challenge Cup 2012 here in the capital from Monday.

The national players are being trained by head coach Graham Roberts, assistant coach Megraj KC, and goalkeeper coach Upendra Man Sing twice a day from today.

However, some of the players could not attend the first session of training due to their personal works and injuries.

Nepal has been drawn along with Palestine, Maldives and Turkmenistan in group ‘A’ while defending champion North Korea, India, Tajikistan and Philippines have been placed in group ‘B’ of the tournament.

Nepal is set to face Palestine in the opening match of the tournament on March 8, 2012 at Dashrath Stadium, Kathmandu.

This is the biggest international football tournament being held in Nepal.

Previously, Nepal had participated in two series of AFC Cup of the total three tournaments.

Nepal had secured fourth position in 2006 while the team failed to reach the knock out round in 2008. Nepal did not qualify for the tournament in 2010.

Tajikistan had lifted the Cup in 2006 while India emerged the winner in 2008 and North Korea in 2010. Nepalnews.com