Lanka overcome Bhutan 2-0

SAFF Championship Group ‘B’match:

Bernard PERERA

Sri Lanka became the first team to register a win in the ongoing SAFF Championship group ‘B’ when they defeated Bhutan by two goals to nil under lights at the Sugathadasa stadium yesterday.

Sri Lanka entered the field as favourites but had to face stiff opposition from the Bhutanese who have improved heavily after their draw against Bangladesh two days age. Infect Bhutan had the possession of the fall for nearly ten minutes from the start.

Lankans settled down during this period and got in to the act swiftly to take control of the game. Specially with two Chathuras skapper Chathura Maduranga and Chathura Guneratne moving up and down to feed the strikers E. B. Channa and Kasun Jayasuriya.

Chathura Maduraga after dribbling past few opponents from the right wing lobbed the ball to the centre for Chathura Guneratne to use his leader effectively to beat the custodian to put Sri Lanka in front in the 25th minute.

During this period Lanka’s strikers missed few scoring chances with Kasun and Channa failing to find the target. Bhutanese enforced a full scale attack to find the equaliser doing everything possible to penetrate the Lankan defence line.

Few times they managed to do so, but failed to find the net to get the much needed goal. if they achieved this during this period it would have been a morale booster for them.

Just fourteen minutes later once again it was the skipper Chathura who made things worse for the opponents. He scored a brilliant goal through a well calculated shot after receiving a good ball from E. B. Channa. This too was from the right wing area.

The lemons were taken with Sri Lanka in the lead 2-0.

The second half began with the hosts in full control of the game. Every now and then the Lankans were seen going past the defence lien of the Bhutanese territory. But due to poor shooting they failed to add anything to the score.

On the other side Bhutanese put on an all out attack to score. All their attempt were futile. Lanka’s main strikers Kasun and Channa failed miserable with their kicks during this period. two fo them missed around four easy scoring oppotunities.

The defence line too performed well to halt the Bhutanese attack at every moment they moved into their territory.

The newcomer to the side Asanga Viraj who stood between the posts too excelled in his position. Both teams failed to score during the second half and the Lankans ran as lacky winners.

At the post match press briefing Bhutan coach Koji Cotok said that he is satisfied with the boys performance in this match. He also praised the Lankan team for their top class soccer displayed and said the better team won the day.

Lankan coach Jan Jung said that he is satisfied with the result but could have made the score line much higher if Kasun the top goal getter for Sri Lanka struck form.

He also said that the team was over confident and that is the reason they did not get a bigger scoreline. I expect another good perofrmance in the next game.

Answering questions he said that he is confident with the players and that is why the goal keeper Asanga Viraj was brought into the side. He did a good job which will help him in the future.