Male, MALDIVES - After missing out countless chances, Maldives draw against Indonesia in the Beijing Olympic Pre- Qualifiers played in Male’.  The draw was enough for the ASEAN nation to pass into actual qualifying stage, thanks to their 1-0 win over Maldives in Jakarta. Maldives played a more attacking game today compared to that of away game. Maldives was better side in the whole match and had countless open chances to take the lead, but none of them was on target.

In one of those chances, Ashfaaq penetrated through the defense line and his shot held the breath of Indonesian players. But to the despair of Maldives team it went inches wide of the goal.

And in the next minute Ashfaaq got another chance, but this time even it went over the cross bar.

All credit to the players : Suzeyn

Indonesia also got few chances in this half. In one of those, Andik took a lob shot as the keeper was outside his goal, but his lob shot went over the cross bar.  
 
In the 22nd minute, Ahfaaq got another chance from the center of the Indonesian defense line, but his shot from left foot went wide of the target.

Andak got another chance from a free kick. But his shot missed by few inches.  
 
The best chance fell for Asshad who was all alone inside the penalty area when Ashfaaq crossed in to the penalty box. But his header went wide of the target.  
 
In the second half, Maldives went on all out attack which left Indonesian players to counter attack. The Indonesian players were wasting a lot of time, by falling on the pitch without any contact. Referee who was from Iraq, showed a yellow card to the goal keeper after giving out a lot of warnings for wasting time. Referee showed the second yellow and a red card for Hendri of Indonesia when he brought down Ibrahim Abdullah. And Indonesia played with 10 players for the last 10 minutes.

In this half even Maldives got lots of chances to score. In the 85th minute, Ashfaaq got a golden opportunity when he received a long ball. He did everything at his best after beating two defenders, other than shooting the target. Asshad also got another golden opportunity but  his touch went over the cross bar.

After the match, Indonesian coach, congratulated Maldivian players for the sheer determination

“First of all I would like to congratulate the Maldivian players. They played really well. It was a difficult game for us. We missed chances and they did as well.”

About his chances of advancing in the group stage, he was very skeptical

“Well, I don’t think we are strong enough. We missed 7  to 8 good players as the Indonesian competitions started. But I hope we could achieve good results and the players I mentioned would also join the practice”

All credit to the players : Suzeyn

Meanwhile, Maldivain under 23 coach, Suzeyn said he would not blame luck for the defeat

“Well, I guess the biggest problem was the loss in Indonesia. The players were in a huge pressure. And because of that we could not achieve the result”

“I give full credit to the players. No one would ever believe that these players could play and do something like this even. We won against Malaysian side who was playing hard for a win. So I would praise the players for their hard work”

‘We started practices on 24th of January and I am amazed about their hard work. . They wanted to do something for the nation.”

He also said that he could not do much to release the players from the pressure

‘We don’t have a sports psychologist in Maldives. If we had that person I would have used him. But we cannot as we do not have one.