Cambodian team attends practice session

ISLAMABAD: The Cambodian football team went through their paces here Sunday at the practice pitch of the Pakistan Sports Complex following their arrival in the city for World Cup Soccer qualifying return match against Pakistan at the Jinnah Stadium Tuesday.

Following the goalless first leg draw, the Cambodian team has started their activities in Islamabad for the second leg. Both the Pakistan and Cambodian teams had their practice at the outer pitch. Pakistan were the first to use facilities for almost 90 minutes followed by the tourists who were seen busy with practice for nearly two hours.

The teams are scheduled to practice at the match venue today (Monday) before the return match. “Both the teams will be allowed to practice for around 60 minutes each at the match venue on Monday. On the same day the team officials are to hold a press conference,” an official, when contacted, said.

Meanwhile, the team’s welcome at the Islamabad International Airport was grossly mishandled by the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) Normalization Committee as there was no one to receive guests, leaving the visitors to make their own arrangements.

“The person deputed to welcome the team reached late at the Airport which resulted in unnecessary trouble for the visiting team. We are sorry and have already expressed the same with the visiting team management,” one of the Normalization Committee members when approached said.