Syrians trounce Sri Lanka 4-0

Published : 2:10 pm  June 29, 2012 |  No comments so far  |     |   (2)  |  

Sri Lanka suffered its first defeat to Syria by 4 goals to nil in the AFC U 22 Championship 2013 Qualifier B Group soccer match played at Riyadh's Prince Faisal Bin Fahd Stadium on Thursday. Though the Lankans did well to contain the strong Syrians to one goal in the first half they flopped in the latter stages of the second half and conceded three more goals including an own goal.

Facing a stiff challenge from the Lankan defence, Syria managed to go into the lead in the 31st minute through a goal scored by Mahmoud Almawas. At half time Syria led one-nil. However it wasn't easy for the Syrians as they could not penetrate the Sri Lankan defence until the 60th minute and it was Mahmoud Alma was who found the net for the second time in the match.

This forced the Sri Lankans to defend and they tried their best to block the attacking Syrians. But in the 80th minute Peter Charles who tried to divert the ball from the goal mouth found the ball inside his own net which gave Syria a 3-nil lead. During injury time F. W. Salem made it 4-0 for the Middle East country.

In another B Group match Saudi Arabia beat Palestine by the same margin (4-0) and Kyrgystan tasted its first victory in the tournament when they beat Pakistan by 2 goals to nil. With these results Syria is leading the group with 9 points and Saudi Arabia in second place with the same number of points. Kyrgystan is lying third with 3 points and Sri Lanka fourth with 2 points. Palestine and Pakistan are in the last two positions with a point each.

- By Tony Mike