Maldives achieves easy victory over Laos with two goals from the “birthday boy”

Maldives has achieved an easy victory over Laos in the first leg of the AFC Asian Cup Qualifying Playoffs with two goals from Ali Ashfaq (Dhagandey) who was celebrating his birthday.

In the match today at the National Stadium in Maldives, the local team achieved a 4-0 victory over Laos.

The Maldivian team started strong and dominated the ball possession in the first half and created a number of scoring opportunities. Ali Faaris (Sentey) found the net for Maldives in the 14 minute. The first half drew to a close with Laos being unable to create an attack against the Maldivian team.

In the 61 minute, Maldives extended the lead with a goal from Captain Ashfaq on the rebound off the keeper following an attack from Faaris.

Substitute Hussain Niyaz Mohamed (Bokuree) scored the third goal for the Maldives I the 87 minute. His shot on goal was deflected off a defender and the goal post before ending up in the net.

Captain Ashfaq scored his second goal of the match in the stoppage time of the second half from a pass from Ahmed Rizwan who came on as a sub.

The second leg of the playoff will be in Laos on 11 October. The team leading on aggregate after the second leg would gain a spot in the group stage of the AFC Asian Cup Qualifying.