Maldives under 16 national football team boys suffered a huge loss against Oman in the first match in AFC U-16 Championship 2018 Qualifiers. Oman won the match by a margin of 8-0.

The match was fully dominated by Oman side as they were seen much superior on the pitch than Maldives. With  confident passing game and keeping the ball possession for the most of the time, they managed to score eight goals against Maldives.

Oman looked way better than Maldives in physical aspects of the players winning almost every battle on the pitch. Whether it is one against one or aerial balls. Oman managed to score four goals before the half time. Oman got many more goal scoring opportunities  even though they managed to scored eight goals.

Having already tasted a bitter result in the recent SAFF U16 Championship, ending the campaign without a single point, it seems Maldives chances in the AFC are way narrow than the regional tournament.

Maldives approached the match with a more defensive game plan, relying on counter attacks to create goal scoring opportunities against  Oman. But somehow Maldives game plan did not work accordingly.

Despite conceding eight goals, Maldives goal keeper, Mohamed Raif did made some brilliant saves, in trying to limit the number of goals he conceded.

Maldives is grouped with Oman, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Syria in group B.

Turkmenistan has withdrawn from the qualifiers and now it makes four teams in the group B. Unlike Maldives, the rest of the four teams in group B is very different from Maldives in physical aspect as well as the footballing resources.

Maldives next match will be against Tajikistan on 22^nd September.

(Photos by: Tajikistan Football Federation)