SAFF Championship Sri Lanka go down fighting 0-1 to Maldives

Action from the match

By Susil Premalal reporting
from the Maldives

Sri Lanka concluded their campaign in the SAFF Football Championship with a 0-1 defeat against hosts Maldives at the National Stadium in Male yesterday. It was yet another disappointing performance from the Lankans as they finished at the bottom of the points table with a solitary point to their credit. 

This was also Sri Lanka’s third defeat in the tournament after having earlier gone down against Bangladesh (0-1) and Nepal (2-3) respectively. Sri Lanka’s only point in this tournament came when they forced a 0-0 draw against the seven-time champions India in their previous encounter.

Sri Lanka had a shock start to the game against the Maldives as they conceded a goal as early as the sixth minute of play. Striker Ali Ashfaq netted the match-winning goal for the home side after having received a neat pass from his teammate H. Hassan. Thereafter, both teams made a desperate attempt to score while making few substitutions but failed due to some solid defence.

This was also Sri Lanka’s eighth loss overall against the Maldives out of the 20 matches played so far. Sri Lanka last defeated the Maldives way back in 2002 when they triumphed 2-0.

This clash between Sri Lanka and the Maldives was a sell-out and the Chief Guest was the President of the Maldives Ibrahim Mohamed while Sri Lanka’s Sports Minister Namal Rajapaksa was a special invitee. 

Sri Lanka had a shock start to the game against the Maldives as they conceded a goal as early as the sixth minute of play