Valencia beat Foakaidhoo to stay comfortable

Shinaz jumps high to score Valencia's first goal

Male', MALDIVES - Goals from Shinaz Hilmy and Mukhthar Naseer prevented Valencia adding to the list of shocked teams in Dhiraagu Dhivehi League. Earlier in the competition, Victory and New Radiant have been casualties of terrible upsets and Valencia had to be a bit careful to avoid such a shame against Foakaidhoo.

Foakaidhoo, who is yet to win a point in the competition, played relatively better than their first three games and kept Valencia under pressure sometimes.

Valencia scared the minnows in the second minute of the game, when Mukhthar’s shot hit the post and Azim failed to score from the rebounded ball.

Valencia, who were out of four key players, created another chance five minutes later when Azim heads Jameel’s free kick, but the attempt went over the crossbar.

In the 20th minute, Foakaidhoo went close to break the deadlock. But Imran, who was unmarked inside Valencia penalty area, missed the target by inches.

Two minutes later Shinaz gifted Valencia his first goal of this season. A perfectly headed ball from Mukhthar’s corner gave keeper no chance at all.

In the 24th minute, Azim missed a great scoring chance. Dribbled into Foakaidhoo penalty area he shot the ball wide across the goal.

Five minutes into second half, Shinaz missed a chance. A shot from inside the penalty area of Foakaidhoo didn’t trouble the opponents and went across the goal.

Four minutes later he took a good cross into Foakaidhoo penalty area and no yellow shirt was there to face it.

Mukhthar doubled their lead in the 67th minute from a free kick.

After the match Valencia coach (Binma) Abdullah Waheed was pleased of winning the game. He also noted that the score would be more one sided if they could use their chances.

"We wanted three points and we got that. So I am ok with it. But we got several chances and if we had used them, we would have a huge score"

One surprising moment of the game was Azim Hussain’s departure from the stadium during the half time.

“I cannot look in to popular or famous faces. Azim (Andy) missed several goal scoring opportunities in the first half, so I had to use some other player instead of him”

"He was unhappy about it and left the stadium"

Though Foakaidhoo lost the game, their coach Mohamed Nazee wasn’t so sad at all and said he was delighted about the performance from his players. He also highlighted that if they could use the opportunities they had they could have done something.

"We also played almost the same level as Valencia. If we had experienced defenders than they would not have scored against us" 

"It was two simple mistakes that cost us the game. If we had used the open opportunity in the first half, we could have done something"

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