Male: The Maldives will take a significant cushion into the second leg of their AFC Asian Cup 2019 playoff against Laos next month after Darren Stewart’s team picked up a 4-0 win in the teams’ first leg encounter on Tuesday.
A brace from Ali Ashfaq and single strikes by Ali Fasir and Hussain Niyaz earned the Maldives a comfortable win in the end, with the South Asian nation opening up a significant margin of victory ahead of the second leg on October 11 with two goals in the dying minutes.
The Maldives went into the game as favourites having handed Laos a 7-1 thrashing the last time the teams met in 2014 and it was no surprise that the home side were on the front foot from the off. Ashfaq went close with a header in the fourth minute and Stewart’s side only had to wait until the 16th minute before they took the lead.
Fasir put the Maldives ahead with a fine strike, smashing the ball home with his right foot after Ahmed Abdullah had headed the ball into the penalty area.
The Maldives continued to press for a second, but the visitors did well to keep them at bay and go into the interval trailing only by a solitary goal.
Four minutes after the restart, the Maldives should have doubled their lead only for Ahmed Abdulla to hit the cross bar following a goal mouth scramble.
But by the 63rd minute, the home side had claimed a second with Ashfaq eventually pushing the ball over the line after the Laos defence had blocked Fasir’s initial effort before Ashfaq scored at the second attempt.
Laos made occasional forays into the Maldives half, with home goalkeeper Mohamed Imran denying Manolam Phomsouvan in the 74th minute, but as time ran out the difference between the teams became every more apparent.
In the 89th minute, Niyaz scored his side’s third when his shot was deflected into the goal and, not long after the restart, Ahmed Rizuwan fed the ball through to Ashfaq for him to put the seal on what was, in the end, an emphatic victory.
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