Sri Lanka takes on defending champs Afghanistan today
SAFF Championships semis
Sri Lanka will take on the strong Afghanistan team in the second semifinal of the South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) Championships in Trivandrum, India today at 6.30 pm IST. Afghanistan is the reigning champions of this tournament.
Afghanistan who have been participating since 2003 beat six times (1993, 1997, 1999, 2005, 2009 and 2011) champions India in the 2013 tournament held in Nepal. Afghanistan are currently ranked 150 according to FIFA Rankings. The Afghanistan team have been practising in Germany for the event. This will be Sri Lanka’s first semi-final match in six years since losing to Maldives by 5-1 in the 2009 edition.
Sri Lanka qualified to be in the semi-final by virtue of the fact that they are Group A runners-up. Sri Lanka played two matches in Group A winning against Nepal 1-0 and lost the other to India 0-2. Pakistan the other team in Group A did not participate due to internal issues within their football federation, making it a three cornered battle for two semifinal spots from Group A.
Afghanistan came from Group B as the Group champions, winning all their matches against Bangladesh 4-0, Bhutan 3-0 and Maldives Islands 4-1.
Afghanistan have scored 11 goals so far in the competition with only one goal against.
In the last edition held in 2013, Sri Lanka lost to Afghanistan 1-3 in the first round. Sri Lanka will be hoping to play a defensive game against Afghanistan today rather than play attacking football.
Sri Lanka has proved that they are a better team than what they were in 2013.
The reason being in the 2013 contest Sri Lanka suffered a humiliating 0-10 loss at the hands of the Maldives Islands, which is the worst defeat a team has suffered in the history of the SAFF championships. Sri Lanka is currently ranked 194 according to World Rankings.
Today the first semi-final is between India and the Maldives Islands where a tough game is expected. On the other hand the Maldives have won the contest only once in 2008.
According to World Rankings Maldives are ahead of India. Maldives are ranked 160 and India is ranked 166. India have qualified to be in the semi-final as unbeaten Group A champions. They played two games winning both. India beat Sri Lanka 2-0 and overcame Nepal 4-1.