Nepal hold Maldives

Indian forward Joaquin Santan (L) and Afghanistan's Israfeel Kohistani are in hot pursuit to win the ball during their opening SAFF Championship match at the Bangabandhu National Stadium yesterday. India won the match 1-0. Photo: Star

A spirited Nepal held holders Maldives to a 1-all draw in Group A opener of the Bangabandhu SAFF Championship at the Bangabandhu National Stadium yesterday.
After dead-lock in the first half, Ahmed Thoriq gave favourites Maldives a 60th minute lead only to see parity restored by Ju Manu Rai eight minutes later.
Both on paper and statistically, Maldives were clear favourites against Nepal, who went 4-1 down to the islanders in their last meeting in April, but the latter produced a brave show to impose authority in the first half after both sides had started the game on 4-4-2 formation.
Maldives, coached by Hungarian Urbanyi Istvan Bela, never seemed to penetrate the Nepalese backline despite having star players in the starting eleven like Ashfaq Ali, who was under constant mark by the opposition defenders.
Nepal gradually gained in confidence and enjoyed superior ball possession and mustered the first shot on target 12 minutes into the game when Bijay Gurung forced Maldives goalkeeper Mohamed Imran to a diving save with his powerful left-footer from outside the box.
However, Maldives reorganised to launch a couple of attacks before the breather, but shaky shots from Fazeel Ibrahim and Gasim Shamweel failed to pose any problem for Nepal goalkeeper Bikash Mallah.
After resumption, Nepal enjoyed the lion's share of possession and came close to taking the lead six minutes into the second half with Chetan Chimire striking the side-net twice from the right.
However, against the run of play, Maldives took the lead 15 minutes into the second half when Ashfan Ahmed whipped a well-judged lob from the right for Thoriq, who received the ball on the edge of the eight-yard box to tap home coolly after making a Nepal defender and goalkeeper fool with exchanging his foot.
Nepal, though, bit back six minutes later as Yougesh Shrestha, who had replaced Bijay Gurung just one minute earlier, released a minus for Ju Manu Rai, who stabbed the ball home with a glancing header to equal the margin.
Nepal found the back of the net again eight minutes from time through Ju Manu Rai, but this time the goal was ruled off-side.
Maldives were lucky enough not to concede a last-gasp goal as goalkeeper Mohamed Imran brilliantly tipped over a dipping shot by Anil Gurung from 30 yards.
Both coaches at the post-match briefing expressed their dissatisfaction over poor refereeing.
However, Nepal coach Krishna Thapa was happy with his boys' performance to snatch a point from Maldives, but blamed the referee for overruling their second goal.
"There is a bit of pressure when you play the first match and some of the players disappointed me despite having the ability of doing better. Besides Ashfaq Ali was marked well by Nepal defenders and other players should have taken the role of Ashfaq, but they did not," said Maldives coach Bela, who appeared partially happy for getting one point.

TEAMS
MALDIVES: Mohamed Imran, Ashfan Ahmed, Umair Mohamed, Ibrahim Sobah Mohamed, Jameel Mohamed, Gasim Shamweel, Naseer Mukhtar (Rasheed Ahmed), Arif Mohamed, Fazeel Ibrahim (Hussain Mohamed), Ashfaq Ali and Ahmed Thoriq (Abdul Ghani Akhram).
NEPAL: Bikash Mallah, Ju Manu Rai, Chetan Ghimire, Sandip Rai, Raju Tamang, Anjan KC, Bijay Gurung (Yougesh Shrestha), Biraj Maharjan, Rohit Chand, Sagar Thapa and Anil Gurung.
Yellow cards: Anil Gurung (Nepal).
Referee: Abdul Hannan Miron (Bangladesh).