Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Yangon: MFF (Myanmar Football Federation) Cup holders Ayeyawady United extended their unbeaten 2015 AFC Cup run to four games as they held out for a goalless draw with New Radiant SC of the Maldives in Group H of the AFC Cup on Wednesday despite playing the last quarter of the game with 10 men.
Ayeyawady went into the tie at Yangon’s Youth Training Centre in second place in the group, two points ahead of the Maldivians and knowing that a win would leave them in a strong position to qualify for the Round of 16.
But after defender Hein Thiha Zaw was sent off for a second bookable offence with 25 minutes left on the clock, the home side had to withstand a period of pressure before securing a hard-earned point and in doing so maintaining their undefeated record in Group H.
“Today we had a plan to win. We started the game poorly but then we put together some chances, however with the red card we had to adopt a more defensive approach and keep it to 0-0,” said Ayeyawady coach Marjan Sekulovski.
“When you play for 30 minutes without one player it is very difficult. Had we won today we would have been 99 percent in the next round.
“But we must look to win three points from our next match – that should be enough.”
The first half was quiet, both sides creating a couple of opportunities each but neither able to take advantage of them with Macedonian forward Riste Naumov the main target for a series of crosses and deep attacking throw-ins from hosts Ayeyawady.
As the half hour mark approached both sides took to longer distance attempts in an effort to break the deadlock.
The most effective of these came from New Radiant midfielder Viliam Macko, who proved himself a constant danger to the Myanmar side during the match.
On the half-hour, the Slovakian turned his man on the edge of the box and unleashed a powerful blast across a helpless Vanlal Hruai in the Ayeyawady goal only to see the ball clatter off the crossbar.
The second half offered little more action until the final 15 minutes of the game with the 66th minute dismissal of Ayeyawady’s Hein Thiha Zaw following two yellow cards giving New Radiant a numerical advantage.
On the 76th minute, Abdulla Ahmad approached the right hand corner of the box and whipped a short cross with pinpoint precision onto the head of Adey Ashadh. Adey produced a firm and clean header but Hruai pushed the ball wide of the near post.
Following that, the Myanmar side was required to draw all men into defensive action as the visitors looked to place progression to the Round of 16 back within their own hands.
Again Macko remained the driving force behind these attacks but although the Slovak forced the home side into some panicked defence, New Radiant failed to make their man-advantage count on the day’s score sheet.
“We came here with no chance of reaching the second round if we lose, we came to win but we did better than last time,” said New Radiant coach Hassan Hameed.
“The players did their job and we hope we can get more from them in the future.
“If we can take six points from our last two games then we can go forward into the next round.”