The Afghanistan National Football team defeated Sri Lanka by 5-0 during the semi-finals of South Asia Football Federation (SAFF) championship last evening and will face India during the final match of the tournament on coming Sunday to defend it’s SAFF championship title.

India sealed victory during the first semi-final match organized earlier this afternoon by defeating Maldives 4-1.

Despite an aggressive start the Afghan footballers could not open the goal of Sri Lanka until 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 to a lead 1-0 during the first half.

Soon after the start of the second half, the Afghan players continued to main pressure on Sri Lanka and Kanischka Tahir hit the second goal for Afghanistan during the 50th minute of the game.

Khaibar Amani hit third goal for Afghanistan by hitting the penalty shoot for Afghanistan after the referee of the match gave a yellow card to player number 23 of Sri Lanka.

This was Amani’s fourth goal during the tournament who 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 of (4-2-3-1) as previously played which includes four players in defense line, 2 players in defensive halfback, 3 players in the middle line and 1 player in the offensive (interior) line.

The Afghan footballers have scored 16 goals during their 4 appearance against Bangladesh, Bhutan and Maldives and Sri Lanka in the semi-finals

(Khaama Press)