Pak football team camp begins

LAHORE: Pakistan football team on Monday began their training here at the Model Town to prepare for the 2026 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers home and away legs against Jordan which will be held later this month.

Both the nations will face each other on March 21 at the Jinnah Stadium, Islamabad. On March 26 both the outfits will be pitted against each other in Jordan. The camp’s first session began at 6:30 pm on Monday and was scheduled to last until 8pm. It is being handled by English coach Stephen Constantine. He is being supported by fitness coach Claudio Altieri goalkeeper coaches Rogerio Ramos Dal Solio and Nouman Ibrahim Muhammad Ali Khan as the strength and conditioning coach.

The foreign coaches arrived here late Sunday night. All the home-grown probable players were part of the first training session. After undergoing a five-day training here the brigade will move to Islamabad latter this week to give final touches to their preparation.

Overseas players will join them later and their names will be announced in the final list which will be finalised by Stephen.

Pakistan have so far played two games in the second round Group G. The Green-shirts lost both the shows. They went down to Saudi Arabia 4-0 before losing to Tajikistan 6-1. Camp probables: Goalkeepers: Salman Ul Haq, Saqib Hanif, Hassan Ali and Abdul Basit; Defenders: Mamoon Moosa Khan, Muhammad Sohail, Junaid Shah, Umar Hayat