Preview: India v Maldives

Trivandrum, INDIA – Maldives will play against six time champions India in the semi final of the 9th edition of SAFF Suzuki Cup tomorrow. Maldives, who has scored 7 goals from three games, has an uphill task to overcome an Indian team who are always the top favorite in this tournament. It is also interesting to know both Maldives and India are the only two sides that have played in the semi finals of all SAFF Championships.

INDIA V MALDIVES

SAFF Suzuki Cup 2015

Venue: Trivandrum International Stadium

Capacity: 50,000 Spectators

Kick off: 1530 hours (1500 hours in Maldives time)

TEAM NEWS

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.

Maldives, a country with a population of nearly 350,000 will play against a country with a population of over 1 billion people have the caliber to beat them and they have shown that in the final of 2008 SAFF Championship. Maldives won the first ever goal medal in 2008 after beating India by 1-0. Mukhuthar Naseer scored the only goal against India at Sugathadhasa Stadium, Colombo.

MATCH PREVIEW

Maldives coach Ricki Herbert has said that it’s always good to play against India in this 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."

“Hopefully we can change the statistics tomorrow. And it will be a great challenge for these boys.”

Ricki also added that there are no injuries in his team and the team is ready for tomorrow’s game but on the other hand Indian striker Robin Singh, who scored a brace against Sri Lanka is injured and he is out of this tournament.

HEAD TO HEAD

Maldives has won just 3 games of their 15 games in different tournaments and friendly matches so far.

Maldives - Win: 3, Lost: 9, Draw: 3

India 5 - 0 Maldives, 1987

Maldives 2 – 2 India, Kathmandu, Nepal 1997

Maldives 1 – 5 India, Kathmandu, Nepal 1997

Maldives 1 – 2 India, Goa, India 1999

Maldives 1 – 0 India, Male’ 2000 (Golden Jubilee Tournament)

Maldives 0 – 1 India, Karachi, Pakistan 2005

Maldives 1 – 2 India, Doha, Qatar 2006

Maldives 0 – 1 India, Male’, Maldives 2008

Maldives 1 – 0 India, Colombo, Sri Lanka 2008

Maldives 2 – 0 India, Dhaka, Bangladesh 2009

Maldives 0 – 0 India, Dhaka, Bangladesh 2009 (India won on penalties)

Maldives 1 – 3 India, New Delhi, India 2011

Maldives 0 – 0 India, Male, Maldives 2011 (Friendly)

Maldives 0 - 3 India, New Delhi, India 2012

Maldives 0 - 1 India, Kathmandu, Nepal 2013