Reigning champions Maldives moved into the Bangabandhu SAFF Championship final after inflicting a humiliating 5-1 defeat on Sri Lanka in the first semifinal at the Bangabandhu National Stadium yesterday.
Fazeel Ibrahim struck twice while Ahmed Thoriq, Ashfaq Ali and substitute Ali Assad netted one each for Maldives. EB Channa pulled one back in the match which was expected to be a mouth-watering clash between the two regional rivals.
Sri Lanka suffered the same fate in the semifinal of the last edition as they bowed out losing 1 -0 to Maldives.
It was virtually a one-sided affair after Sri Lanka had started the match with great pace, going close twice in the opening 15 minutes before Maldives woke up from their slumber with crisp passing and sharp movement as midfielders Arif Mohamed and Gasim Shamweel worked hard behind strike duo Ahmed Thorie and Ashfaq Ali, the nucleus of Maldives' play.
Despite having fielded five fresh players, who were rested in the final group match against Bangladesh, Sri Lanka looked like suffering from a lack of confidence, losing the balance to control the ball on die hard-soil. Thus all their initial efforts went begging though at the pre-match briefing, Sri Lankan captain Chatura had said that their fresh legs would be the key to the success in the semifinal.
Maldives Hungarian coach Urbanyi Istvan brought no change to the starting eleven that handed a 2-0 defeat to India and his charges grew in confidence to assert their authority after a brief show from Sri Lanka. Maldives came close to taking lead thrice inside three minutes and one of the three attempts saw a header from Arif Mohamed come back off the crossbar in the 17th minute.
Maldives took five minutes to open the account as Ashfaq exchanged a short comer kick
with Naseer Mukhtar from the right before releasing a measured lob for the unmarked Thoriq, who just headed the ball past goalkeeper Sadhishkumar to give Maldives a 22-minute lead.
Thoriq then hit the sidenetting on the half-hour mark before Sri Lanka came close to equalling the margin in the next minute, but Channa hurriedly floated a Gunarath cross wide when composure was needed to find the back of Maldives net.
After the resumption, Sri Lanka looked desperate to level the margin and found the equaliser with Channa levelling the margin in the 62nd minute following two efforts from Channa and Asmeer.
But, Sri Lanka could not hold the equaliser long as Maldives hit back two minutes later. Fazeel put Maldives ahead again and Sri Lanka will not forget the match for the howler made by their goalkeeper Sadhishkumar, who let
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a harmless grounder got under his hands in the 64th minute.
Ten minutes later, it was again Sri Lanka goalkeeper Sadhishkumar, who conceded the third goal astonishingly as Ashfaq shrugging off his marker lashed an angular shot from the left and found the net to make it 3-1.
Ashfaq then was brought down inside the box by substitute defender Badara and the Indian referee awarded the penalty with Fazeel converting the spot kick in the 85th minute. Ali Assad put the icing on the cake with header from a Umari cross to seal the fate of the match one minute from time.
Maldives coach Urbanyi Istvan was obviously ecstatic
about the result, even though he did not expect such a big win. He attributed this result to team effort. "Obviously, we didn't think we might score as many as we did, but we always looked for goals. We won the match by dint of sheer team effort. We converted the chances we made, whereas Sri Lanka couldn't", said the Hungarian. He didn't seem concerned about who comes as opponents in the final.
The losing trainer Sumith Walpola congratulated Maldives for winning the match and said dial Ashfaq Ali was the difference-maker in this match citing the Maldives striker as the best in South Asian football.
TEAMS
MALDIVES: Umair Mohamed,
Fazeel Ibrahim (Mohamed Sifan), Arif Mohamed, Ashfaq Ali (Hashed Ahmed), Jameel Mohamed, Ahmed Thoriq (Ali Assad), Gasim Shamweel. Abdul Ghani Akram, Naseer Mukhtar, Mohamed Imran and Ibrahim Sobah Mohamed.
SRI LANKA: KCK Lankesara (MNM Izzadeen), Y Sadhishkumar, Chatura M Weerainghe, Sanjaya Pradeep Kumara (Warakagoda/ Bandara), Kasun Jayasuriya, EB Channa, S Sanjeev, Dumidu W Hettiarachchi, WRD Ruwanthilaka, Chathura Gunarathne and M Asmeer.
Yellow cards: Weerasinghe (Sri Lanka).
Referee: Srinivasan Suresh (India)