Male', MALDIVES - Maziya SRC's coach Ismail Mahefooz (Imma) said that Maziya lost vital 2 points, as they were held to 1-1 draw by 10 men Selangor in the Group F of AFC Cup today.
Selangor took the lead through Australian Defender Peter in the closing stages of the first half but Maziya equalized when skipper Ahmed Mohamed converted a spot kick early in the second half.
Maziya was awarded the penalty when striker Asadulla Abdulla was brought down in the box by Selangor's goalkeeper Mohamed Hamsani. Hasmani was shown a straight red card for the challenge.
"We lost two vital points. Selangor are stronger than us but today we could have beaten them," Imma said after the match.
"The main reason we could not win the match was that our key players did not perform to their maximum. I am disappointed with the result because winning home games are important."
Imma was forced to replace key midfielders Ahmed Mohamed and Ibrahim Shiyam in the second half after the pair displayed a poor performance.
"Even though Selangor played the majority of the second half with 10 men, we couldn't take advantage of that. We had to substitute our playmaker and attacking midfielder as both of them were not performing well. Our game is mainly based on the midfield but today in the key moments we needed to build attack in the midfield but it was ineffective," Imma said.
Selangor's Australian coach Mehmet Durakovic said that he was happy with the players performance today.
"I am very happy with the performance. We played the majority of the second half with 10 men. We made one mistake and it cost us 3 points. We should have got 3 points today. The players worked hard today. We got so many chances in the first half. It should have been 3-0 in the first half," Durakovic said.
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