Blues increase the gap

Male’, MALDIVES – New Radiant came from behind to beat Valencia in the ongoing Dhiraagu Dhivehi League to increase their gap on top of the league table.

Valencia shocked the defending champions in the 22nd minute when former New Radiant player Nishan broke the deadlock from a close range effort.

But blues took just nine minutes to level the game after David found a long through ball and in a one on one situation he sent the ball past keeper Habeeb, who replaced suspended keeper Ifrah between the posts, to score the equaliser.

New Radiant coach took the decision for early substitution as soon as Valencia scored the opener and after David equalised he replaced Dane with Oppo and David with Tom.

And just five minutes before the break Tom went inches close to score his first goal in Blues return but close range header waz denied by the post.

New Radiant preasured Valencia defense from the start of the second half and paid off in the 62nd minute when a penalty was awarded for a handball.

Mohamed Umair comfortably scored from the spot to take the lead.

In the 64th minute Fasir increased the leader after he found a through ball from Umair and sent the ball over the keeper.

In the 70th minute Keeper Habeeb was forced to block another stunning shot from Fasir.

New Radiant’s coach Mika said after the match that the turning point of the match was the penalty.

“Yes the turning point of the match was the penalty and the things happened at the dressing room during the half time. (Laugh) Yes it was the turning point of the match and I am happy with this win.”

“Still we need to work hard to fix some things and we can keep on going. The good thing is that we gave chances to two young players and they performed very well.”

Meanwhile Valencia coach Shahid said that they were happy with the performance of the match.

“We performed very well against a team like New Radiant and the only sad thing is that we didn’t get any points in this match. We opened the scoring and took the lead against them which made us happy.”

“Still we have the chance to be in the top six and also we need to look into the results of other teams and we are confident that we can be in the top six.”

Maziya will play against Mahibadhoo tonight at 2100 hours.