Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Male: Paulinho Piracicaba took the plaudits on his Hong Kong debut as the Brazil-born forward’s first-half penalty saw the East Asians defeat the Maldives 1-0 on Thursday and pick up their fourth win of the 2018 FIFA World Cup/2019 AFC Asian Cup joint-qualifiers.
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The Maldives had the better of the early exchanges and came close to taking the lead in the 12th minute when when Cameroon-born defender Jean Jacques Kilama headed Abdulla Asadhulla’s shot off the line after Hong Kong keeper Yapp Hung Fai was caught out of position having charged towards the edge of the area to block Ali Ashfaq.
The East Asians were handed the opportunity to open the scoring a minute later after Yapp’s opposite number Imran Mohmed took down Paulinho Piracicaba (Paulo Robspierry Carreiro) inside the area and the Kitchee striker - who was making his national team debut debut having received his Hong Kong passport at the end of October - cooly converted the resulting spot-kick.
Hong Kong’s victory at the National Stadium in the Maldivian capital consolidated the inaugural AFC Asian Cup hosts second-place position in the Group A standings with 13 points, two shy of leaders Qatar who look to maintain their 100% record when they resume their campaign next Tuesday when they take on bottom-of-the-table Bhutan in Thimphu.
The group winners and four best runners-up (total 12 teams) will advance to the 2019 AFC Asian Cup finals and the final round of qualifying for the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
The next best 24 teams from the preliminary stage of the joint qualifiers will compete in a separate competition for the remaining slots (12 slots or 11 slots + 1 slot for the host) in the 24-team 2019 Asian Cup.