Maldives and Palestine through to semifinal

May 23, 2014 - 08:28:22 | Mohamed Sajid
Maldives fans gathered up to stadium to support their team

Male', MALDIVES; Maldives has reached to the semifinal of the AFC Challenge Cup 2014 along with Palestine who won the Group-A first place. After a 0 - 0 draw in Maldives vs Palestine game and 1 - 0 win against Myanmar to Kyrgyzstan in Addu Football Stadium, Palestine and Maldives are now through to the semifinal of the tournament from Group-A.

Palestine gathered 7 points from 3 games while second place Maldives got 4 points from 2 games. Kyrgyzstan and Myanmar got 3 points each in the group stage campaign.

Maldives created the first attempt of the game in the fifth minute. Palestine goalkeeper made a good save on Umair's free kick from the left flank. Keeper Saleh well punched the powerful free kick to a corner kick.

Maldives winger Niyaz (Bokury) was injured and substituted in the 14th minute of the game. Ali Fasir came in from the bench for the replacement.

In the 25th minute of the game, Abujazar tried with a long range shot but it went over the crossbar.

Two minutes later Mousa was disappointed as his powerful shot from the edge of the penalty area missed the target by inches from the crossbar.

Nine minutes remaining in the first half Ashfaq penetrated Palestine defense line and fired a shot from edge of the penalty area but the weak shot was caught by keeper.

Two minutes in to the second half Fasir delivered a good cross in to the penalty area and found Umair inside box but Umair's header missed the target.

FIve minutes later Fasir fired a powerful shot from close range from inside the penalty area but it was blocked by a defender and cleared out to a corner kick.

In the fifty ninth minute, Ashfaq fired another powerful lower shot from outside the penalty area but keeper dived and saved the ball.

Three minutes later Ashad Ali was close to gift the lead for Maldives, his header from Ashfaq's free kick went inches away from near post.

Maldives players and Officials claimed for a penalty in the 66th minute as Ashfaq went down inside the penalty area after a charge from Palestine defender, but Referee declares no offense in the attempt.

Final games of the group-B will be played tomorrow night at 16:00pm. Philippines will play against Turkmenistan in Male' while Afghanistan will play against Laos in Addu Football Stadium.

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endheri on May 23
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we are fortunate palestine secured 6pts from their earlier games. if this was do or die for palestine things could have turned out bad for us. that being said i think the team plays up to satisfaction but could have done a lot better. the only disappointment was umair. i'm not sure why umair was replaced by akram. i was hoping he'd be replaced by bonda who was also not so great in the last two games mostly due to his positioning on the field. we could have really used bonda's bullet shots from outside the box. my second choice would be assadulla or adhuham.
ahmed on May 24
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great work from the team... habeyyyyys
truth on May 24
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great work by team !! lack of good passes to front line!! hope umair will improve his performance in semi-final !! at least try to to pass 3/5 straight to our player instead of miss parsing ! good luck team \o/
footballmad on May 24
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A good tactical and cautious strategy which just worked. the team needs a good rest but do watch every minute of the Afghan game tomorrow. I have a feeling that we will have to beat them to get to the Final. So, this is a good time to watch and mark their players' style, techniques skills and most importantly, their weak points and zones on the pitch.
Imma on May 24
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Umair has looked rather jaded and subpar in this tournament so far. I wonder what it will be like if he was replaced by Asadhulla. Play Asadhulla up top and Dhagey could also get more involved in the match. It's something that came to my mind.
Ahan on May 24
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You are not alone my friend. We have given 3 games for him to correct that but he has failed. Bonda too is not that good. So as you said bringing Asadhullah and giving him a chance is the best option left. ::: Last night i noticed TWO things (1) why the substitutes were delayed till 85th minute??If we are playing for a win the ideal time is 70th minute!!! I was thinking about that very much, since the players were very tired in last 20 or so minutes!!! i even expected Ashfaq to be replaced to Ashadhullah or to play two strikers and handover all those runnings to Asadhullah to give Ashfaq some rest on the field. (2) The team was attacking ONLY from ONE SIDE, we HAVE TO use both the flanks that is a must!!!!!
Hasy on May 24
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Even Nashid (Nattey) is a good choice to replace umair. I have played with Nattey, i know his ability to break the line and run with speed for through balls. If we can play assadhulla or Nattey up front with Dhagey behind him, we can make a difference. Seriously, Umair is wasteful in this tournament so far.

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