Afghanistan defeats Sri Lanka 5-0 SAFF championship semi-final

http://www.khaama.com: The Afghanistan National Football team defeated Sri Lanka 5-0 during the semi-finals of South Asia Football Federation (SAFF) championship and will face India during the final match of the tournament on Sunday to defend its SAFF championship title.

India sealed victory during the first semi-final match by defeating Maldives 3-2.

Despite an aggressive start, the Afghan footballers could not open the scoring until the last minutes of the first half, despite having major control of the game.

However, Sayed Mohammad Hashemi hit first goal for Afghanistan during the 46th minute of the game, putting the Afghan team into a lead at half time.

Soon after the start of the second half, the Afghan players continued to maintain pressure on Sri Lanka and Kanischka Tahir hit the second goal for Afghanistan during the 50th minute. Khaibar Amani hit the third goal for Afghanistan by scoring a penalty for Afghanistan. This was Amani’s fourth goal during the tournament and is still the highest goal scorer in the championship. He was replaced by Zubair Amiri soon after hitting the third goal for Afghanistan.

Arash Hatefie hit the fourth goal for Afghanistan soon after replacing Abasin Ali during the 80th minute of the game while the fifth goal was hit by Captain Faysal Shayeshteh during the 85th minute of the game.

The Afghan team appeared with the same formation (4-2-3-1) as previously played which includes four players in defense line, two players as defensive halfbacks, three players in the middle line and one player in the offensive (interior) line.

The Afghan footballers have scored 16 goals during their four appearances against Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives and Sri Lanka in the semi-finals.