Nepal draw with holders Maldives

The reigning champions Maldives shared points in their opening game with Nepal after a 1-1 draw in the Bangabandhu SAFF Championship on Saturday.
Held at the Bangabandhu National Stadium in the day’s first match, one of the tournament favourites, Maldives were struggling from the beginning and played under pressure throughout the match while Nepal displaying a good brand of football to dominate the match but failed to snatch the result in their favour.
Although, both the teams looked to be in defensive strategy from the very beginning and hardly they showed their intention to go for an aggressive game till the short whistle. It was Nepal who created the first opportunity in the 11th minute to take the lead but Bijay Gurang’s effort missed the target narrowly.
Maldives, who were very much unimpressive, also produced a half chance while Ahmed Thoriq’s powerful right footer from the top of the box was gripped by the Nepalese keeper.
Maldives, despite were under pressure went ahead in the 61st minute after a barren first half when Ahmed Thoriq broke the deadlock of the match.
Right winger Ashfaq made a solo run to make a pinpointed cross just inside the box and the Nepalese goalkeeper missed the flight to grip the ball as the ball came to Thoriq’s way, who rushed close to the post and did not mistake to push the ball into an empty net (1-0).
Nepal, who worked hard to equalise the margin just nine minutes later. Manu Raj superbly beat the Maldives keeper from the goalmouth melee having a cross from Anil on 69th (1-1).
Nepal rest of the time tried their best and also gave immense trouble with a series of sharp attacks but failed to earn a deserving victory, although a goal which was scored by Manu Raj was disallowed for offside.
The Nepalese coach Krishna Thapa, in his post-match reaction, expressed his disappointment over the referee’s decision and said, ” I am not happy with the referee’s decision. My boys played well but the referees did not play their role perfectly”
Specially, the goal which was  disallowed for offside was 100 percent correct, however, we will try to continue the performance,” Krishna said.
The Maldives’ Hungarian coach Istvan Bela expressed his disappointment with his boys’ performance.
Istvan Bela , who told in the pre-tournament press meet that his philosophy is to entertain the fans presenting a good quality of football but it was not seen in the 90 minutes game from his booters, as he said, ‘I am really unhappy with the boys responsibilities and the way they played.”
“But in the first match it can be happened, boys might be in pressure in their opening match and I hope they will show better performance in the next matches,” Bela explained.
Photo: TBT

Source: The Independent