Male’, MALDIVES – Goals from Ashad Ali and Shamveel Qasim gave Maldives a 2-1 win over Kyrgyzstan and send the home side close to a place in 2012 AFC Challenge Cup.
It took Maldives just four minutes to score the opening goal as Arif’s headed passed was sent over the keeper by Ashad to give an early lead.
Maldives could have gone two goals up had Ashfaq being unselfish in the 26th minute. But the ace striker tried to beat the keeper instead of passing the ball to unmarked Ashad and keeper collected the ball.
The home crowd was furious in the 34th minute when Ashfaaq was brought down inside Kyrgyzstan penalty area by the defender. But the referee booked Ashfaaq for a diving.
There were couple of incidents early in the second half where the crowd went made for not giving a penalty for series of fouls on Ashfaaq.
The visitors lost one man in the 74th minute when referee showed red card with a second for Baimatov for fouling Ashfaaq.
Five minutes later second half substitute Shamveel doubled Maldives lead. Ashfaaq crossed the ball from the right and Ashad missed the ball but Shamveel shot the ball and apparently the keeper punched the ball away but assistant referee signaled for a goal. Kyrgyzstan coach was furious of the decision and came on the pitch to face the referee resulting to send him away from the bench.
Karchenko cut the deficit with three minutes remaining. The visitors tried hard for an equalizer but the result looked enough for the home to win a place in next year’s Challenge Cup.
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