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Only win will do for Maldives

Sports Reporter
Reigning champions Maldives arc upbeat about their chances of defending the SAFF Championship title with Pakistan and Sri Lanka only want to perform their level best in the eight-nation meet.
Of eight participating sides,
four including hosts Bangladesh appeared before the press yesterday to talk about their preparations as well as expectations regarding the Bangabandhu sixth SAFF Championship, beginning on Friday at the Bangabandhu National Stadium.
Maldives' Hungarian coach Urbanyi Istvan Bela was optimistic about retaining the prestigious regional title under his guidance and warned that his charges might be stronger than that squad which won the SAFF title a year back.
"As a defending champions, our expectation is simply high, but every game Is a new challenge because it is changing continuously. We have to prove our performance on way to retaining the title," said Bela, who took over Maldives in March last year.
"This type of tournament is neither easy nor difficult, but is very challenging because everyone has almost equal strength and will want to become champions. It is the main challenge I think. We respect all teams. It is always important to win games when you come to play in international level, but my philosophy is to enjoy the game and the success will come to you," said Bela.
Bela informed that Maldives had a two-month training for the championship and before coming here, they travelled to Bahrain and Malaysia to play six practice matches and his charges are quite ready to take the challenge.
Under the guidance of Bela, Maldives last thrashed Bhutan 5-0 after a competitive 3-2 victory over Philippines. However, Maldives went 3-1 down against Turkmenistan in April
before playing to a 1-1 drawagainstSri Linka
Hie Hungarian coach was obviously distressed for not getting the promising youngsters like midfielders Ismail Mohamed and Easa Ismail and forward Rasheed Ahmed, but he might be delighted thinking of nine players, who are in together for the last couple of years. Maldives reached the SAFF finals three times and lost to India and Bangladesh before lifting the first-ever title last year beating rivals India and Maldives captain Ali Ashfaq thinks India, though it is under-23 side, are the main rivals for them in the group stage before hosts Bangladesh.
"I think India will be a tougher side in our group whether it is the under-23 side. We know them very well and then it is hosts Bangladesh, but we are sure we will play good football in the tournament," said Ali, who was adjudged man of the tournament in the fifth SAFF Championship.
Pakistan's Austrian coach George Kottan was not as optimistic as the Maldives coach, but the former Bangladesh coach, promised that Pakistan would play better football in the meet.
"We are here to show good football and nobody knows the results," said the Austrian
coach, who guided Bangladesh to the 2003 SAFF Championship title.
After taking charge in February, Kottan had started the SAFF preparation in October with 18 players before travelling to United Kingdom to search for Pakistani-born hooters and brought five UKbased players under his belt.
"We had prepared in Lahore, Dubai (10 days), Thailand (one week) for the championship and it is important to practice not the results. Hie boys had very hard training and are now physically sound to take the challenge," said Kottan, whose main strength apparently lay on five UK-based players -- Shabir Khan, Atif Bashir Qureshi, Adnan Farooq Ahmed, Amjad Iqbal and Reis Ashraf.
The Pakistan coach, however, was a bit frustrated after missing UK-based defender Zesh Rehman, whom Kottan claimed as the best defender in the region.
Though Kottan was not ready to compare his side with
hosts Bangladesh, he believes Pakistan is better than Sri Lanka this time. Bhutan is the other opponent in Pakistan's group.
After arriving in Dhaka on Tuesday, coach Sampath Perera declared that they are dreaming big, but Sri Lankan captain Chathura Maduranga reset his sights and that they first want to qualify for the semifinals.
"Our target is to play the semifinals first and then we will think about the final," said Maduranga at the briefing.
Maduranga rated Bangladesh as top favourite in the tournament, mainly because of home advantage, crowd and familiar environment while he thinks Pakistan and Bhutan are equal strength sides.
Comparing to the Nehru Cup, the Sri Lankan captain said that Nehru Cup was far better tournament compared to SAFF Championship because there were some teams from Middle East.