Maziya shocks the champions

Maziya celebrates the success

Male', MALDIVES - It’s Dhiraagu Dhivehi League 2007 and the game is New Radiant against Maziya. Who will win? Oops! You guessed it totally wrong. It’s Maziya, who is believed to be taken home one of the biggest upset of this season, beating the mighty champions by not just one goal but by 3 nil. Surprised? Surely most of us will.

New Radiant who was previously defeated by Valencia in their last game had nothing to show against the minnows, but could it be Sadhun’s injury and substitution the turning point?

Sadhun suffered the injury on his first attempt to save an effort from Maziya’s Chathra. Though he knocked the ball away to a corner, he took an injury far too serious to stand in between the three posts for the rest of the game. So coach Gerd had no choice other than bring in another experienced figure, Aslam.

New Radiant’s first dangerous effort came in the 15th minute from Ashfaag, a stunning shot was saved by keeper Ifrah.

Without much goal scoring chances, Maziya broke the deadlock in the 55th minute from Chandra’s chip shot. Aslam was not in a good position to stop the nicely executed shot.

New Radiant’s best chance came in the 69th minute in the form of a penalty kick. Referee signaled to the spot kick for Ifrah’s foul on Ashfaag. Shimaz took the responsibility, but his penalty kick was well saved by keeper Ifrah.

The missed penalty effort almost killed the hopes of defending champions and Maziya took full advantage of their grief.

Ibrahim Abdullah doubled their lead five minutes from time from a rebounded ball that came into the play from Ali Niyaz’s free kick.

In the 90th minute Shaam Shareef sealed the historical victory from a one touch play with Chandra.

Maziya coach Ismail Mahfooz was delighted to see such a surprising result and stated they were waiting for a result like this and he gave all the credits to the players for their performance.

"To play against Maldivian number one team and winning by a 3 goal margin is a good success we have achieved. One of our best success and I am very delighted about the win. All the credit goes to the players for their hard work and determination"

"The other teams got an edge over us and that's experience. Our players are young and they panic in some situations"

On the other hand New Radiant coach Gerd blasted his players for their performance and said they cannot win any game with the attitude they showed today. He also blamed his defenders for taking things so lightly against Maziya.

"This is the darkside of the moon. This is not football we played today. It is something else"
"You cannot win games with the attitude the players had today. They cannot win any one-one situation. They cannot score open chances and miss a penalty and from that point of time we had lost the match"

“The defenders could not win in one on one situation. But they think as if they are on the winning side and took it so easily. They should know that the opponent is also playing football"

"The midfield was useless today. I used Ashfaaq as a striker today and the only ball the strikers received was a pass from Ashfaaq. So I had no choice except to put him as an attacking midfielder"

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