Champions Eagles make an amazing come back against New Radiant. Eagles beat New Radiant 4-2 in last night's Under19 Youth Championship clash.

Yusuf Jaisham Nafiz stunned the defending champions with a an early goal. Eagles dominated play though New Radiant launched dangerous counter-attacks against Eagles. Blues scored again against the run of play when Jaisham again, who made an excellent run into the box before placing to the far post to make it 2-0.

Ten minutes later Eagles play-maker slotted the ball to reduce the deficit. He controlled the ball and placed the ball low into the goal.

New Radiant held on well until injuries to their center defender and center midfielder. Then on it was all Eagles. Goals by Hussain Ahusam Moosa, Ibrahim Ilhan Ismail before Ahmed Samah, the man of the match, completed the comeback for the Champions.

Speaking to media after the match, New Radiant youth head coach, Coach Sampath said:

“ In total I am very satisfied with the overall of the match, I am very happy with the effort from my players as this was the first match. And defense line was having injuries during the match which caused us problems. We will be getting ready for Maziya match with the things that we learned from tonight’s match.”

On the other hand, Champions Eagles youth head coach, Ibrahim Saeed (Coach Kaka) said:

“ Alhamdhulillahi. I am very happy to win this game in a way like this. We could execute our plan and did not find our style in the first half, but in the second half we made things better. I am satisfied with players work rate and to enter the tournament by winning the opening game like this will benefit us in many ways, it boost our confidence”.

Eagles will play Green Streets on the 31st while Maziya will meet New Radiant. Eagles tops the 4 team table.

As for the tournament format, it will be played as a mini league of two rounds between the four participated teams this year. And the top two teams after two rounds of play, will face in a title deciding final.

According to the format, it will be a very tight schedule for the four teams. There will be only one day rest between the each game during the first round of play while there will be two days in between second round  matches for each team.

Unlike the last five years, this time FAM has taken a the decision to lower the age category from under 21 to under 19. Therefor this year and in the upcoming few years, Youth Championship will be targeted for under 19 players.

Photo: ImagesMV