New Radiant buries Maziya shock

Shamveel celebrates the first goal

Male', MALDIVES - New Radiant came stronger against Vyansa today to bury their disastrous defeat tasted against Maziya in ongoing Dhiraagu Dhivehi League. New Radiant outclassed the top spot club with a superb performance in the first half and hit the target twice to relax a little bit. Blues failed to continue the performance in the second half, but an own goal from Vyansa sealed the victory for them.

New Radiant was without striker Ahmed Thoriq, who is scheduled to leave tonight to Malaysia to continue his studies, but Ali Ashfaag had a field day in the heart of defending champions.

Ashfaag fired a shot in the 8th minute of the game, but went over the cross bar by a yard.

Vyansa couldn’t do much in the whole first half except clearing the dangers of the opponents, but in the 18th minute they suffered the setback as Idris provided the champs an awaiting lead. Shamveel’s shot hit the crossbar and Idiris carefully converted the rebounded ball without any mistake.

In the 22nd minute Idris couldn’t do much from Ashfaag’s timely pass, due to poor controlling.

Three minutes later Vyansa was forced to block a shot from Adam in front of the goal.

New Radiant increased the lead in the 30th minute from Shamveel’s second goal of the tournament. A beautiful pass from Ashfaag met Shmaveel, who was left unmarked by Vyansa players thinking he is offside. Shamveel doubled the lead sending the ball into the net while two defenders, who were covering the goal couldn’t do much.

Vyansa appeared better in the second half, but missed their chances and handover the champions the three vital points.

Five minutes into second half, a shot from Shuaib went over the cross bar.

Vyansa played the last 10 minutes of the game with 10 players after Saudhulla took a red card for a dangerous foul on Akram.

A minute after the red card, and own goal was more than enough for New Radiant to grab the three points. Shamveel’s effort hit the post and rebounded back to the play and Mohamed Ibrahim’s attempt to clear the danger seemed too weak and the ball hit at the back of his own goal.

After the match, New Radiant's coach Gerd said that the team recovered well after the huge disaster

“After the two huge disastrous defeats, the team showed good powerful football in the first half. Remember the opponent was strong and they came back strong in the second half. And our boys forgot to play football in the second half”

He also said that the main reason for the poor performance in the second half was over confidence of his boys

“The players thought 2-0 was enough and they were too confident. So our boys relaxed a little bit and they (Vyansa) came strong”

He also said that team should concentrate on the psychology of sports as New Radiant performance is much better when they are in pressure

“New Radiant players have shown an outstanding performance when they are in pressure. But when they have no pressure, there is a poor performance and we have to deal with it”

Meanwhile, Vyansa's coach Nizam said that the team's defense lost concentration right from the start of the game

“The defense line lost concentration from the whistle and it was difficult for them to gain it back. That was the main setback in today's game”

He also noted that today's first half was the most fastest attacking game played in the season so far

“Both teams played a superb game in the first half. They scored two early goals and a team like us with inexperienced players; it would be difficult to recover back”

He also highlighted that the main problem for today's loss was that the team were dragged in to New Radiant's game plan

“We were dragged in to their football today. We could not dominate and they played well”

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