The Indian national football team arrived in Kathmandu on Monday to play two international friendly matches against Nepal. The friendlies are scheduled for Thursday and Sunday at the Dasharath Stadium in Kathmandu.

Both the sides are playing to finetune their preparations for the SAFF Championship set to take place in the Maldives from October 1 to 16. The 25-member Indian team is led by captain Sunil Chhetri and their Croatian coach Igor Stamic.

The India team came to Nepal after a two-week training since August 15 in Kolkata. Unlike India, Nepal national team have been in training camp for almost two months. The national team under the captaincy of Kiran Kumar Limbu are currently under closed camp training in Pokhara and are scheduled to return to Kathmandu on Saturday. Kuwaiti coach Abdullah Almutairi has been training the Nepali team.

It will be the first assignment of the controversial Kuwaiti coach on home turf. Earlier through his Facebook posts, he had twice threatened to quit the hot seat.

This is the first occasion the Indian national football team has visited Nepal to play friendlies. The last time India visited Nepal was in March 2015 in the second-leg of World Cup qualifying playoffs, which ended in a 0-0 draw.

India hold a superior head-to-head record against their South Asian rivals. The two sides have so far played 19 matches starting from 1985. While India have won 13 matches, Nepal have won two and four ended in draws.