After defeating Sri Lanka and qualifying for the semifinal, Afghanistan coach Yousef Kargar had categorically mentioned that he wanted Nepal to be their opponent only in the final. Afghanistan needed a win against the Maldives to avoid Nepal in the last four. [break]
However, the Maldives, playing without its ace striker Ali Asfaq, held the Afghans to a goalless draw. After Friday’s match, Afghanistan and the Maldives both have seven points each but Maldives has a superior goal difference. The result also means that the semifinals will be a repeat of the last edition -- Nepal versus Afghanistan and India versus the Maldives. Afghanistan and India had reached the final of the last edition.
“Football is a game where you can’t avoid opponents. We couldn’t avoid the home team Nepal,” said Kargar after the match on Friday. “Nepal is a very strong team technically and in terms of speed. Nepal also has home ground advantage. However, we’ll also try to reach that point,” said the coach of the top-ranked South Asian country.
Maldives coach Urbanyi Istavan Bela said their semifinal opponent India is a tough team to play as it has some players with great potential. But when asked about the semifinal result of the last edition, he replied: “New game, new story and new chance.” “Both the semifinals will be tough. They would be big fights and all four teams have 50-50 chances,” said Bela.
Players of Maldives (blue) vie for the ball with Afghanistan’s goalkeeper Mansur Fagiryar (R) during their SAFF Championship match at the Dasharath Stadium on Friday. (Bikash Karki/Peublica)
On Friday, both the teams missed some scoring chances. Afghanistan’s Mohammad Yusef Mashrigi failed to connect to a cross from Mo Marouf Jamhour in the danger area in the 19th minute, and was denied by the Maldives goalkeeper Imran Mohamed later. Imran Mohamed blocked Haroon Fakhruddin’s free-kick and Sanjar M Ahmadi ended up hitting high on a rebound from the edge in the 63rd minute. In the dying moments of the match, Imran Mohamed denied attempts by Farzad Ghulam Muhaiuddin and Mustafa Azadzoy.
On the other hand, Maldives player Mohamed Umair failed to score in a one-on-one with Afghanistan goalkeeper Mansur Fagiryar in the 37th minute. Umair fired wide from the danger zone in the 71st minute after making a fine sprint. Fagiryar again denied him in a one-on-one position in the injury time.
“We missed chances but played good football. We maintained superior ball possession and we were technically sound,” said the Afghanistan coach.
“We didn’t feature Asfaq for some safety reasons. We reached the target against the highest ranked team of the subcontinent. They are physically stronger than us,” said Maldives coach Bela.
Consolation win for Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka defeated Bhutan 5-2 in the last group stage match at the APF ground at Halchowk. Both Sri Lanka and Bhutan had already crashed out of the tournament.
Mohamed Rawme completed a hat-trick in the match while Bhutanese player Pema conceded an own goal. Sonam Tenjing and Pasang scored a goal each for Bhutan, which is the only team to lose all three group matches of the tournament.
Ticket price hiked
All Nepal Football Association (ANFA) has hiked the ticket prices for the semifinal and final matches.
According to ANFA CEO, Indra Man Tuladhar, ticket for the ordinary parapet is priced at Rs 500 and for the VIP parapet at Rs 1000. The ticket prices were Rs 300 and Rs 700 during the group stage matches.
Meanwhile, ANFA has requested all the football fans to buy only the tickets with hologram stickers. ANFA has also decided to sell a maximum of 10 tickets to a person.
“We came up with the provision after we came to know that some people bought tickets in bulk and tried to sell them at exorbitant prices,” said Tuladhar.
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