The Maldives defeated Sri Lanka in the first match of the South Asian Super Cup played between the two nations.
The Maldives won the match played yesterday at Sri Lanka’s Racecourse Stadium with a score of 3-0. In the current situation where the state of football has declined, the Maldives achieved an important victory today.
The Maldives secured a two-goal lead in the first half of the match. In the 28th minute of the match, Hassan Naiz gave the Maldives the lead from an attack launched from a corner kick, while in the 34th minute of the match, Ibrahim Mahudhee Hussein (Feydoo Ibbe) extended the Maldives’ lead in a counter-attack.
When Sri Lanka received a penalty in the second half which went wasted, the Maldives’ third goal was scored during the second half’s additional time. Ali Fasir (Sente) successfully scored that goal for the Maldives from an attack sent very clearly into the penalty area from a ball given by 16-year-old Mohamed Ilan Imran.
Ilan became both the youngest player ever to play for the Maldives national team and the first player to provide an assist for the national team. Today’s match was also his first match playing for the senior team.
Today’s victory was the Maldives’ first win in the last six matches. While the Maldives secured their first triumph under the guidance of head coach Mohamed Shiyaz (Mohan), they went into this match with minimal practice sessions. Even though several days had passed since the league was stopped for some time, the outcome turned out to be unfortunate for Sri Lanka.
The Maldives had not defeated Sri Lanka in the past 23 years, and before the match, Sri Lankan coach Abdullah Al Mutairi had said that his team was aiming to defeat the Maldives for the first time since 2002.
While that was not achieved and the match concluded, the second match of the South Asian Super Cup between Sri Lanka and the Maldives will be held on the 9th of this month.
