Good to play against India

Trivandrum, INDIA – Maldives national team coach Ricki Herbert has said that it is always good to play against six time winners of SAFF Championship, India in the tournament.

“I have told that in many times that the draw was very good for us. It is always terrific to play against India and when compared to these two countries the Maldives is having a population of nearly 300k people and India is having over a billion."

Maldives will play against India for the fifth time in the semi final of the regional tournament. Maldives is yet to overcome India in a SAFF championship semi final, losing in all four times they met in 1999, 2005, 2011 and 2013; these are the only four editions where Maldives failed to reach the final.

When asked about the previous meetings between the regional giants, Ricki replied that the statistics would change.

“Statistics will change always and one gentleman has said that the result against India not good for us. But hopefully we can change it tomorrow. But it’s a great challenge for these boys."

Ricki also said that the players are aware of the defeat to Afghanistan in the last match of the group and it won’t be a problem.

“The players are very clear what the instructions were in our last match and the players know about that. So there is nothing to worry. Lets see how things go tomorrow and hopefully we will move one step forward.”

Maldives will play against India tomorrow at 1500 hours and defending champions Afghanistan will play against Sri Lanka at 1800 hours Maldives time.