Oman crush Maldives

Ten-man Oman toyed with Maldives to hand them an emphatic 4-0 defeat in their Group A match of the AFC U-19 Championship Qualifiers at the Bangabandhu National Stadium yesterday.
Oman -- who suffered an identical 4-0 reversal at the hands of favourites Saudi Arabia in the tournament opener -- struck two goals each in either half with Khalid Khalifa, Hatem Khamis, Mahmood Mabrook and Mohamed Said Saud scoring one goal each.
On the other hand, it was the second consecutive defeat for Maldives.
To keep their chances of qualifying for the final alive, Oman had no option but to win against Maldives and the Gulf nation expectedly dominated from the outset,creating huge pressure on the islanders' backline and forcing Maldives to adopt a counterattack-based game.
In such a situation, Oman were reduced to 10 men in a bid to thwart the opposition's counterattack, with defender Nadir Awadh being sent off in the 23rd minute after tackling Maldives striker Guraish from behind.
Despite the disaster in the first match against Saudi Arabia, Oman never looked as if they were playing with one man short; instead they played attacking football and this time left the field with heads held high.
The Gulf nation took a deserved lead in the 31st minute with Khalifa nodding in a corner from Hatem Khamis, who doubled the margin from a spot kick in the 40th minute.
Mahmood Mabrook made it 3-0 with a simple tap two minutes into the second half while substitute Mohamed Said Saud converted another spot-kick to seal the victory four minutes from time.