India will look to maintain their dominance over Maldives when the two teams face off against each other in a Saff Championship Group B match at Bangabandhu National Stadium in Dhaka Sunday at 7pm. In 15 competitive matches, India have beaten Maldives 11 times, with the former scoring a total of 32 goals against the latter’s 12.
However, Sunday's tie might be a bit different from the past encounters, given that India have largely sent a youthful side, mostly comprising U-23 youngsters, for the seven-team regional tournament.
“I am not a person who loves to focus on history too much. Such facts don’t matter at all. We are playing against a completely different Maldives team and they're also going to face a different India team whom they played last time,” said India head coach Stephen Constantine on the eve of the clash.
Reigning champion India began their Saff Suzuki Cup 2018 campaign justifying their pre-tournament favourite tag as they handed Sri Lanka a dominating 2-0 defeat in their opening Group B match at Bangabandhu National Stadium in Dhaka Wednesday eveninghttps://t.co/cejkLDrixZ#SAFF
— Dhaka Tribune Sports (@Sport_DT) September 5, 2018
India have already qualified for the semi-final after beating Sri Lanka 2-0 earlier in the tournament while the Lankans and Maldives played out a goalless draw later. A win or a draw will take Maldives through to the last four but a convincing defeat at the hands of India will see Sri Lanka progress instead.
Despite the odds being stacked heavily in favour of India, Constantine said they will not start as favourite Sunday.
"In this competition, we are not going to start as favourite in any of our matches. We are a young and inexperienced side and we are playing against senior sides. We can say we have a good chance to win this game. But I don't feel we can be labelled as favourite before the kick-off,” said Constantine.
India Head to head Maldives
96 Fifa ranking 150
15 Matches 15
11 Wins 2
2 Losses 11
2 Draws 2
32 Goals scored 12
12 Goals against 32
Group B
Teams P W D L GD Pts
India 1 1 0 0 2 3
Maldives 1 0 1 0 0 1
Sri Lanka 2 0 1 1 -2 1
