Palestine hammered Sri Lanka in a 9-0 win in a group B match in the 2020 AFC U23 Championship Qualifiers held at the Khalifa Sports City Stadium, Isa Town, Bahrain.
Why were they dropped from Sri Lanka U23 squad?
With the Sri Lanka Squad being announced for the 2020 AFC U23 Championship Qualifiers, a lot of the talk….
It didn’t take long for Palestine, who made it to the last eight in China in 2018, to open their account as a partially cleared Mousa Farawi cross fell to Mahmoud Al-Iwisat who fired it from the edge of the box. Three minutes later Yousef Emghamis found himself on the receiving end of a cut-back from the byline to finish it off with a powerful drive to the top corner.
Sri Lanka got two back to back free-kicks on the edge of the penalty box but Suntharaj Niresh was unable to find the target.
In the 24th minute skipper Ibrahim Dabbagh had the easiest of tap-ins to make it 3-0 before Emghamis had his 2nd taking advantage of a scrambled defense.
Half Time: Palestine 4 – 0 Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka did get an opportunity early in the 2nd half after a poor defensive clearance fell to Rifkhan Mohamed, but with just the goalkeeper to beat his effort was saved by Omar Nahfawi.
Dawoud Iraqi resumed normal proceedings on the hour mark with a thundering long-range effort to the top right corner and substitute Mahmoud Salma added another assisted by Raed Dahla.
Read More: Sri Lanka squad announced for AFC U23 qualifiers
Jude Suman conceded two penalties within the space of 7 minutes which was slotted in by Mousa Farawi with a Panenka and the other by Dahla respectively.
Saadou Abdelsalam concluded the scoring after Dabbagh’s initial effort was saved by Rasik Rishad but the rebound crept under the goalkeeper.
Though Sri Lanka tried to play a passing game when they did have possession the lack of match awareness and experience was evident as the Palestinians were a cut above them. The only bright spot for Sri Lanka was skipper Rasik Rishad who made multiple brilliant saves to keep the score from going past double digits.
Full Time: Palestine 9 – 0 Sri Lanka
Goal Scorers
Palestine – Mahmoud Al-Iwisat 7’, Yousef Emghamis 10’ & 30’, Ibrahim Dabbagh 24’, Dawoud Iraqi 60’, Mahmoud Salma 68’, Mousa Farawi 70’(P), Raed Dahla 72’(P), Saadou Abdelsalam 79’
>>For more National Football News Click Here<<
