Pakistan vs Kenya

National Sports Complex Pitch 1 in Mauritsius forms the backdrop for an international friendly meeting between Pakistan and Kenya.

A brace of uneventful defeats without scoring to kick things off in 2023 has continued Pakistan’s wayward form across the past several years. Going back to September 2018, they have lost all eight international outings by an aggregate score of 16-3, drawing a blank in the last three in a row. Pakistan’s underachieving attack is not the only genuine concern for manager Sahzhad Anwar, given that his men conceded multiple goals in six of those eight defeats. However, they’ve shown defensive resilience in the early stages of late, keeping a first-half clean sheet in four of their last five matches. Unfortunately, they conceded eight second-half goals in those games, highlighting the risk of collapsing after halftime.

Meanwhile, it was an underwhelming start to the new calendar year for Kenya as they succumbed to a 2-1 loss to Iran despite opening the scoring beyond halftime back in March. That result ended the African nation’s two-game unbeaten run (W1, D1), ominously marking their sixth consecutive international without a clean sheet. Abandoning their borders will unlikely aid manager Engin Firat’s hopes of getting his team back on track, with the Kenyans alternating between drawing (2) and losing (2) across their last four travels since a 2-1 win at Togo in March 2021. Considering they netted under 1.5 goals on all those four trips, keeping things tight at the back will be of utmost importance.