SAFF Championship 2011: Sixth match Pakistan Vs Maldives (Pre Match Preview)

PAKISTAN Jaffar Khan; Samar, Amjad, Muhammed, Kamran; Saddam, Rizwan, Adnan, Bashir Kalim Khan, Jadid Khan

MALDIVES Imran Mohammed; Shafiu, Fazeel, Akram, Assad,; Umair, Shamveel, Hassan, Arif; Ashfaq, Thariq

The SAFF Championship opener saw one of the tournament favourites Bangladesh being held to a draw by a gritty Pakistan performance. Zavisa Milosavljevic, the coach of the 174th ranked nation stated that his team has a definite chance of making it into the knockout phase of the competition.

The problem with Pakistan was that they lacked a physical and rather typical striker up front who could convert those chances much quicker. The Greenshirt's now face a Maldives side who themselves had a poor game of football in their opening Group 'B' encounter against Nepal.

Maldives coach Istvan Urbanyi started with a 4-4-2 formation with Ali Ashfaq and Ahmed Thariq starting upfront, and that will be the partnership likely to contest Pakistan and hopefully for them, try and win against the run of play this time!

Urbanyi was appointed as coach of the national team only five weeks prior to the start of the tournament, though he does know team well as he was their coach a couple of years back as well. What ever the  fisrt match was gone Maldives are solid favourite of the game as football is only the game the Maldivian love.

To watch the live match Please click the link Below

 Live streaming video of SAFF Championship match between Pakistan Vs Maldives

Facts about  Both team

• About 11,500 Maldivian supporters, including the former president Maumoon Abdul Gayyoom, attended to see the 2008 SAFF Championship final match in Sugathadasa Stadium, Colombo, Sri Lanka.

• Maldives most significant success was winning the 2008 SAFF Championship where they beat the most successful team India in the final 1–0.

• To celebrate that memorable day the President declared that 15 June 2008 will be a public holiday!

• Pakistan lost their first international 5–1 away to Iran on January 6, 1950.

• As a result of the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War, East Pakistan became The People's Republic of Bangladesh and consequently the Pakistani team lost the right to call upon Bengali players.

• Interestingly, Pakistan among the 8 nations, have the most number of players plying their trade overseas from Denmark to Wales to England

Field Report

 Pakistan

 Maldives

Last Five Matches

Pakistan
02-Dec-2011	Bangladesh 0 - Pakistan 0	SAFF
25-Mar-2011	Chinese Taipei 0 - Pakistan 2	ACC
23-Mar-2011	Pakistan 1 - India 3	ACC
21-Mar-2011	Turkmenistan 3 - Pakistan 0	ACC
08-Dec-2009	Pakistan 7 - Bhutan 0	SAFF

Maldives
02-Dec-2011	Maldives 1 - Nepal 1	SAFF
28-Jul-2011	Maldives 0 - Iran 1	WCQA
23-Jul-2011	Iran 4 - Maldives 0	WCQA
10-Jul-2011	Maldives 1 - India 1	IF
25-Mar-2011	Tajikistan 0 - Maldives 0	ACC