The Philippine Azkals returned to the semi-finals of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Challenge Cup for the second straight times after an impressive run during the Group Stage of the tournament topping Group B with a total of seven (7) points and a clean sheet. The team will face the highly hostile home crowd Maldives national football team.
See Also: Azkals vs. Maldives Live Coverage, Scores and Results
The Azkals move one step closer to the country’s cherished dream of reaching to the AFC Asia Cup, the continent’s elite football tournament, featuring the best teams in the Asian Region. The Azkals enters the semi-finals of the AFC Challenge Cup 2014 and successfully eliminated their fierce rival Turkmenistan during their last game.
The Philippines morale right now is high although they will face not only the 11-man Maldives national team but also the hostile crowd which is estimated to reach at least 13,000 spectators. The Azkals vs. Maldives semi-finals match up will be held at the Maldives National Stadium,
According to Thomas Dooley the head coach of the Philippine Azkals, the Maldives game is difficult for them as his team as they face the whole country who will surely support Maldives at their home soil. The crowd will surely give Maldives players an energy and power to negate whatever the advantage of the Azkals.
The Philippine Azkals will be playing without Dennis Cagara, who will returned to his second-division team in Denmark, while Fil-German superstar Stephan Schrock is also feeling pain in his hamstring. The Azkals newest revelation however, is Daisuke Sato, who proved his worth as an Azkals leftbak.
The Azkals also enjoyed a two-day break, and right now they feel that they are ready to finally get past the semis and eventually to the finals of the competition. The Philippines is one of the two teams in the tournament that have yet to concede a goal, the other team is Palestine, who will also face Afghanistan today.
The Maldives national football team is a team that is beatable according to some football experts, the Philippines defeated Maldives in 2009 with the final score at 2-1. In this year’s AFC Challenge Cup, Maldives was also defeated during the group stage by Myanmar at 3-2.
Although Maldives is not considered as one of the strongest team in the competition but the team also proved they could compete even against the world’s best football teams. Maldives was able to score a goalless draw against South Korea, the team also concedes just two goals in Male against the 2014 World Cup qualifier, Iran National Football team, the same team who scored 17 against Maldives.
One of the most dangerous player playing for Maldives national football team is team skipper Ali Ashfaq, the AFC Challenge Cup leading scorer with three goals under his name. The Maldives No. 7 player goes by the nickname “Man of Steel” is considered as one of the dangerous goal scorer in the competition.
Ali Ashfaq is best known as the lone player who scored 6 goals (double hat-trick during the 2013 SAFF Championship against Sri Lanka. He scored five goals during the 2013 AFC Cup playing for home against Persibo Bojonegoro, according to football experts no other player except Lionel Messi and Ali Ashfag scored 5 goals in a continental tournament.